The Phantom of Rowan
by ForgottenFables
Summary: Danny and Jazz were the freaks of Amity Park after the disappearance of their parents, but after some strange events at a local art gallery, they end up going to a school for young mystics. But the question remains, is Rowan ready for these two Fentons? Takes place during book 1. Never read the book. Don't worry. I explain most. Discontinued. Take it if you want it.
1. Chapter 1

I own nothing, not the characters, the space where this story exists, or even the eyes that you are using to read it. This is for entertainment proposes only, no money involved.

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><p>Two siblings sat huddled together on a bus ride to down town Amity Park, a twelve year old girl named Jasmine Fenton, though everyone called her Jazz, and her eight year old step brother, Daniel or Danny. Even though they were not really blood related they still shared the same heart shaped faces and crystal blue eyes. But Jazz's hair was straight and bright red where her brother's was a messy raven black.<p>

"Jazz, everyone's staring." Danny whimpered. And it was true. Even though the bus was packed with people heading to their morning jobs, the two seats on either side of the children remained empty.

"Try to ignore it, Danny. We'll be at the museum soon." Jazz said patting at her little brother's hand.

Everyone in the town of Amity Park knew who these two children were, if not from seeing them themselves then from word of mouth. They were the children of Jack and Maddie Fenton, two scientists that had studied ghosts and the supernatural. Danny had been the child of Jack and Jazz of Maddie before they had married, but the two were as close if not closer than normal siblings and had never known there other sides of their families.

Just two years ago Amity Park had been known as the most haunted city in the entire world. Beasts and apparitions took solid form and attacked people in the streets in broad day light. The year that these attacks had gone on for was a year of pure terror for the inhabitants of the town. Several hundreds of people simply left the city to get away from the madness.

But then a day two years ago, all the ghost attacks stopped as suddenly as they had all started the year before. The only other event that was connected to the last day, was the spiriting away of three individuals; Jack and Maddie Fenton, and there college friend and mayor of the town, Vlad Masters.

Words and theories where thrown around and one thing was decide on. The three individuals had something to do with the ghost attacks and that they left because whatever evil they had meant to do was done. 'But why were the children left behind?' the answer to the people was simple, 'the children are cursed'.

No one would go near the Fenton children or the house that they still lived in. People became even more suspicious when an unknown person by the name, Thomas Chrono, became the legal guardian of the children and declared them to be home schooled.

From that day forward no one ever saw the children leave their house. They never went to get groceries or any other supplies and no one entered to give it to them. But they could see the lights on in the house and hear the children and others that didn't sound completely human. Rumors flew around, most saying that the girl was a witch and that the little brother was a demon she conjured. Their home became that house that all the children dare each other to ring the doorbell and run away at.

The only times they ever left their house was during two days a year; their parents' birthdays, and today happens to the Maddie's. The bus driver practically had a heart attack when the children first came onto the bus.

But even with all the rumors, they still went out on their parent's birthdays and braved the town to celebrate their parents the way that they would have wanted. Every year for their father's birthday they would go out and buy large quantities of fudge that would take weeks to eat. And for their mother's birthday they were going to the art museum that she had taken them to every year.

"Ok." Danny said to his older sister and continued to stare at the floor. Jazz smiled and placed her arm protectively around the little boy and they sat in silence, ignoring the whispers of the people around them as she thought back to how it had all started.

Danny had always been really closed to his older sister. She was the only one there when he had his accident three years ago, a day that changed Danny's life.

They're parents had long been trying to developed a way to go to the world of ghosts, or as they called it, the Ghost Zone. They created a form of tunnel or portal that was designed to do just that. But they couldn't get it to work.

One day Danny, who had just turned five that very day, was running around the house in the white and black jumpsuit that he had gotten for his birthday from his mom and dad. It was one just like the ones that they wore all the time; it was fire proof, bullet proof, frost resistant and none conductive. In the center of its chest was a black ghostly 'D' for Danny.

When Jack and Maddie went out to pick up his birthday cake, Danny went down into the family basement where his parents' had set up their lab. He ran into the unfinished ghost portal and pretended to work on it like he had seen his dad doing. It had just been a game of pretend to him.

"Danny, you know you're not supposed to play down here." His sister had scolded him. Danny had merely smiled and connected two wires. But the smile had disappeared when he heard a humming sound. "Danny!" Jazz had screamed as the machine had come to life.

Danny had screamed as there was a blinding flash of green light and electricity and some kind of wind pushed Jazz back and way from her screaming brother. But soon the portal had stabilized, and out stumbled the figure of the five year old Danny.

The colors on his jumpsuit had flipped, so where it had been mostly white before with black gloves and boots and a black neck guard, it had changed to being black with white gloves, boots, and neck guard. His hair had also changed from the raven black to a starch white. Danny had looked up at her with tears in his new vivid green eyes. As Danny collapsed crying into Jazz's arms a ring of light passed over him and turned him back to normal.

Their parents were excited when they got home. They had no idea what had made the portal suddenly work and thought it was some kind of miracle. Jazz had pushed though thought of the white haired Danny out of her mind, and told herself that it was just a trick of the light. Danny had seemed healthy enough and something inside her told her that it was not a good idea to tell their parents.

But late that night Jazz woke up to Danny's screaming in the room next door to hers. She ran in to find Danny, again with white hair and the jumpsuit that he had taken of earlier and she could see on his desk in the corner. He was flouting in the air upside down and panicking as he moved his arms as if he was trying to swim.

Jazz had hid what had happened to her brother from the world, even from their own parents. She had taken him out every night in secret so that he could practice controlling the power in him so that no one would find out on accident. She had seen movies of what scientists did to people that were different like that, and she had heard her parent's talk about what they would do, what they would do if they caught… a ghost. The nine year old Jazz, was afraid of her own mom and dad.

It didn't take much for her to convince Danny to keep it secret, even though the five year old boy didn't understand what was going on. But it wasn't long until other ghosts appeared and their parents caught one. For the month after it had happened Danny had snuck into Jazz's room ever night after waking with nightmares. He had learned why Jazz didn't want their parents to know.

But what had confused Jazz was that there family's Portal was not the one that the ghosts seemed to be coming from. It wasn't until later that they met Vlad Masters and found out about his condition and his portal, and about what Danny had really become. Not a ghost, but a half ghost.

It had begun Danny and Jazz's adventures together fighting ghosts. They fought some of the Ghost Zone's most powerful ghosts using Danny's blooming Ghost powers and the devices that they took from their parents' lab. Jazz had Danny put on a white hoodie and black jeans over the easily recognizable jumpsuit that would not come off, so that he would not be recognized by their parents.

Danny was given the name of Phantom by the ghosts and some of the humans that happened to spot him, and he became an icon of hope to each after his now legendary fight with Pariahs Dark, or at least legendary in Amity Pack and the Ghost Zone. They ended up going into the ghost zone themselves and befriending several ghosts on more than one occasion; such as Frostbite, Princess Dora, Pandora, the Ghost Writer, even the Box Ghost, his wife the Lunch Lady's ghost, and of course Clockwork. And it was these ghosts that had taken care of them after the disappearance of their parents.

None of the ghosts knew what happened to Mr. and Mrs. Fenton and Vlad Masters, except for Clockwork the aged keeper of time, the one who became the guardian for the two children. But he never revealed it, and if asked he would just say that 'all will be revealed in time'.

So Jazz and Danny were raised by ghosts, the very creatures that everyone feared. Being schooled by the Ghost Writer and Clockwork, and being trained by a mixture of Greek Spartans in Pandora's halls of Olympus, Medieval knights at Princess Dora's Court of Aragon and the tribal warriors of Frostbite's at the Far Frozen. They had enjoyed the two years of peace that they had with the ghosts.

Jazz looked up at the bus that was now nearly empty. Everyone had gotten off one stop after the brother and sister had gotten on. Looking out the window she spotted some signs for the art museum that they were going to. One of them boasted out the new Phantom exhibit. Jazz gave a light smile, how could it be that they look on the more human part of her brother as a monster, and yet they worship his ghostly self. There was some actual graffiti around the town that showed the five year old child with white hair and a crown of thrones with 'Phantom died for our sins' written in bold font. No one had seen Danny's ghostly self since the ghosts stopped attacking. They stopped because Vlad was gone, and he had been the one controlling them all along.

"Danny, we're here." Jazz said softly as she took her brother's hand and they left the bus. The moment the bus door's closed the wheels screamed and the bus took off. Jazz held back a sigh as she looked at the hurt face of her little brother. "Come on, let's start looking around. There's a lot to go through." She smiled and pulled him along.

Danny nodded and tried to hold his head with pride as they went into the museum and wondered through the rooms looking at the painting and point and laughing at the recreations of things that they had seen in the Ghost Zone.

"Why can't we go in here?" Danny asked as they stood at the entrance to an exhibit labeled 'Renaissance'.

Jazz had him by the arm and was blushing feverishly as she tried to think of something to say. "I don't think it's something you're ready for. Trust me Danny. I'll explain it when you're older." The twelve year old girl said.

"Your sister is right there." A middle aged balding man said as he walked up to the children.

Jazz looked at him for a moment before she recognized him. "Oh, Mr. Lancer, it's good to see you." She said nodding and giving a grateful smile.

"Hello." Danny said and moved behind Jazz. Mr. Lancer had been the vice principle at the elementary school that Jazz and Danny had gone to before they started being home school. Danny had been sent to him several times for fighting. Danny had never meant to, but he had had problems controlling his powers at the time and they had gotten him into bad situations, especially with the school bully, Dash.

"It's good to see young minds coming to the museum to look at the classes." Mr. Lancer said as he walked to a painting on the far wall that had a depiction of a World War One trenches and no man's land. "But everyone seems to be going to that exhibit on the more modern hero, Phantom. They just overlook the older generations." Mr. Lancer sighed and turned to them. "I hear your being home schooled, are you keeping up with your studies?" Jazz guessed that Mr. Lancer had always been a teacher and historian at heart. He never paid attention to things like hearsay and she was glad that he was there to show Danny that not everyone believed the terrible rumors.

Jazz smiled and nodded. "Yes, we've been studying. And as for the Phantom exhibit, well, some of those images about the ghosts are a little… gruesome. I'd rather not see them myself." Jazz said thinking about the guesses and various theories about the life and death of Phantom. Best if Danny didn't see any of them.

"I understand where you coming from. I don't exactly have the stomach for it myself." Mr. Lancer nodded looked back to the painting. "It's too bad that this small museum doesn't have any authentic classics." He mused but after a short pause he added. "Or perhaps that is a good thing. After all, there have been strange thefts across the globe." A look of anger passed the man's face. "How horrible, people stealing works of art away from the world." Mr. Lancer shook his head. "The worst part about it is that people are starting to throw around the word ghost again." Danny's eyes widened in shock, Mr. Lancer seemed to have noticed and clarified. "The thieves manage to make it in and out of the museums without showing any signs that they had ever been there, almost as if they just walked straight through the walls and all security measures." Then Mr. Lancer shook his head.

"I hope they're wrong." Danny said trying to smile at the middle age man. Mr. Lancer put out a hand and ruffled his hair.

"It's good to see you two again. You should come by my house sometime. You would always be welcome. And remember not to burden your sister to much young man." He said in a fake stern voice before waving goodbye.

"I don't think that it was a ghost." Jazz said as they waved goodbye to Mr. Lancer.

"Yah, we would have heard about it if it was." Danny agreed.

Jazz smiled down at her little brother. "Come on. Let's look at the outdoor exhibits. Some fresh air might be nice." She said and led the way outside.

They walked around and stared in relative confusion at the 'modern art' that was in the outside area. They couldn't make heads or tails of any of it. But just as they were thinking about going inside again they heard a voice that Danny had hoped he would never have to hear again.

"Ha, it's the freak and his keeper." It was Dash. Dash was an obnoxious blond kid from a privileged family that had always picked on the other kids back at the elementary school. Dash was only one year younger then Jazz and the eleven year old had always had a personal hatred for the Fenton kids, even before the town stated to say things about them.

"Uh, why are they here, I thought someone ran those freaks out of town." The Latino girl Paulina said in her snobby fake accent that she picked up from watching soap operas.

"Leave us alone, Dash." Danny muttered. Dash had evidently forgotten the last time he had picked on Danny. It had been shortly after their parents' disappearance and before they left normal school. Dash said that Phantom was the reason that their parents were gone and that he would come back for him and Jazz.

Danny had secretly blamed himself for everything, even though he had no idea what had happened. So when Dash said that it was because of him, no matter how unwittingly, Danny lost his temper and broke Dash's arm. He had regretted it later, but the foolish bully didn't learn, and it looked like history might repeat itself.

"I don't think so Freak, this place is for normal people. You and your witch sister should leave." Dash said angrily. He was feeling pretty confident in front of his six friends.

"Then why is a weirdo like you here?" Danny said mockingly. A large rock went through the air and hit Danny in the head. Danny didn't even look at a trickle of blood rolled down his head. He lifted up a sleeve and whipped the blood away from his eye.

"See, a monster like him can't even feel." Dash said and threw another rock that he picked up off of the stone path. Soon the other kids were joining in.

"Stop it!" Jazz shouted and got in the way. The moment the rocks started to hit her and Danny's eyes widened. He didn't care if they tried to hurt him, but his sister was of limits. Danny moved passed his sister in a flood movement before grabbing the wrist of Dash who was about to throw another stone. Pulling the older boy forward he punched him in the face.

Danny had been holding back, but there was still a crack as Dash's nose broke and the boy sprawled out on the ground crying through the blood. "Don't you dare hurt my sister!" Danny shouted as the other kids ran screaming about the monster.

"Look at that." One of the adults that had stood around doing nothing about the kids throwing rocks. "Look at what that freak did to that poor boy." "They should lock kids like that up and throw away the key." "They're freaks, just like their parents."

"That isn't fair!" Jazz protested looking at the adults. "Danny was just trying to protect me!" She said angrily.

But the words had pushed Danny too far. He turned and ran. Jazz could only desperately run after him, but no one could catch Danny when he was running.

She soon lost sight of him and was searching the exhibits. "Danny!" she cried out, but there was no answer. Losing Danny in a place like the human world was not good, especially not Amity Pack. Almost no one there would help her find him.

If she had thought clearly then she would have realized that Danny could take care of himself and fly home later, but she was not thinking clearly.

She heard a sound behind her and turned to see a wing that she hadn't noticed when she was coming in. The doorway was covered my red cloth and yellow tap declared it, 'under repairs'. But Jazz had thought she had heard something behind there. Thinking it might be Danny she slipped behind the red cloth.

Jazz didn't find Danny in there. What she did find was rather creepy. On the opposite side of the room, was a large woven tapestry covering the entire wall that seemed to be unwinding or perhaps it was unfinished. The treads coming out of the bottom were all stretched tightly to the ground.

The tapestry itself was dark and seemed to have several stained spots. It showed a depiction of a large poorly lit room full of dark figures in noble looking cloths.

Jazz knew that she should be going to find Danny, but her feet were frozen to the ground. She could only stare as a segment of the tapestry began to glow.

In a few seconds there was a new figure on the wall. It was that of a woman with short red hair in full armor that was surrounded by light. She was kneeling in front of one of the nobles whose face was stitched in a different style then the others. It seemed… vainer to Jazz somehow, triumphant maybe. The light that surrounded the woman grew and grew and as it did the other figures in the painting were replaced by soldiers holding old French flags. For some reason Jazz felt panic rising up inside her. But then the light faded and the entire tapestry turned black and then the bottom of it caught fire. Jazz shut her eyes tight against the flames and when she opened them again the whole thing was gone. She finally found that she could move and she rushed out of the room.

Looking over her shoulder she saw that the room that she had just been in was gone. She then spotted a clock and was horrified that two hours had gone by. "But… I was only in there for two minutes." She said in a panic and ran off calling for Danny again.

Danny had not noticed that the time had gone by. No, because Danny had had a strange experience of his own. Danny had not run back inside. He had cut into some of the trees that the museum used for setting the atmosphere for some of the pieces. He was sitting in a spot next to a lake that was outside the museum, and was throwing rocks into the water and crying when he spotted someone on the far shore.

It was a woman with blond hair that was tied up in a bun. She was wearing a strange white gown, a lot like the ones that Danny had seen Pandora wear on special occasions. In her arms was a bundle of rags. The woman seemed to be giving off a golden glow.

Danny was blinking at the scene, his first thought was a ghost, but he couldn't sense one… No, he could sense something… but it wasn't a ghost. The woman looked… beautiful.

She started to unwind the wrapped cloth in her arms and it exposed the naked body of a small infant child with small tufts of black hair and pale skin. The baby was crying weakly as its mother held it. Danny was confused, until the woman held the child gingerly by one heel, and dunked him head first into the lake.

Danny's eyes widened in horror and he tried to get up to go and stop her. But something was holding him down. He tried to call on his ghost powers but he couldn't. He was able to do anything but sit there and stare as the woman drowned the child.

The golden light around the woman seemed to darken and the lake began to glow green. Danny's eyes shot from the woman to the lake. Something was seriously wrong. The lake had begun to glow a dark and murky green and wispy white shapes were moving around just beneath the surface. Danny could see bones and organs flouting around just underneath the surface of the lake. It was all he could do not to lose his breakfast right then and there. It all looked and smelt so real, he could even hear the cries of the wisps.

The wispy creatures seemed to gravitate towards the drowning child and it started to glow with the same intense golden light as the woman had when she had first appeared. The woman gently lifted the boy out of the water and the baby had changed. Its hair was bright gold and its skin that had been pale was a deep tan color. The baby no longer cried. The mother set him down on the ground where the infant somehow managed to stand on its own and then the woman disappeared. The lake turned back to normal, and finally the baby faded from view.

Danny sat there panting for several second before he could get a hold of himself. The tears he had cried earlier had dried to his face and his hands were filled with large handfuls of earth. He slowly loosened his hands and got control of his breathing.

"Danny!" his head shot up as he heard his sister's cries. Jumping to his feet he dashed through the brush and popped out of the wooded area right next to her scaring the nearby visitors. "Danny you're ok. I'm sorry it took so long for me to find you." She said hugging him.

"Jazz, it's only been five minutes." Danny said trying to break the hug.

Jazz looked at him and blinked. "I thought so to but… the clocks say that two hours have gone by." Jazz whispered. Danny's eyes widened and he looked around until he spied a clock. "Did you see something weird too?" Jazz asked in a whisper. Danny merely nodded. "Let's go home Danny, we can talk about it there and get some lunch too."

Taking his hand they moved past the reproachful on lookers and out of the museum. They weren't waiting at the bus stop long before their bus came by, but instead of stopping to let the children on, it just kept going. "Maybe I should just fly us home." Danny muttered so that no one else would hear.

"'Grapes of Wrath', I can't believe this foolishness." An angry voice shouted. Danny and Jazz jumped and turned their heads around to see Mr. Lancer standing behind them. "They are just children for Pete's sake." He reached out and put a hand on the children's shoulders. "Come now, I'll give you a ride home."

He led them to an old fashioned car and they got into the back seats. "Thank you Mr. Lancer." Jazz said putting an arm around Danny.

"Don't mention it Jasmine, there is no excuse for how people were treating the two of you." Mr. Lancer said shaking his head. "I heard about what happened with Dash today, unbelievable. I have been an instructor for thirty years and I have never heard of children trying to stone someone. I should take him aside and give him a paddling he will never forget. Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Whatever happened to the values of the world? Love thy neighbor, seeking peaceful solutions and understanding, and treat others as you want to be treated. This would never stand in my day. In my day…" Mr. Lancer continued to go on about the wrongs of the world.

Danny was smiling as he listened to the bolding man. It was good to know that there were people who would always be kind to others. But Jazz was still thinking about the vision that she had seen. She thought that vision would be the best term for it. She also wondered what kind of things Danny had seen.

Sitting there in the back seat Jazz leaned back and heard a sound like the crackling of paper. She then noticed a lump in one of her pockets and pulled out a small cream colored envelope that hadn't been there before. On the front of it in a curling script was her name, Jasmine Fenton. Looking up and seeing that Mr. Lancer was preoccupied with driving and ranting she opened the envelope.

'Dear Ms Fenton,

Our records indicate that you registered as a potential this morning at 11:27 AM central stander time US. Congratulations Ms Fenton, you must be a very remarkable young lady, and we look forward to making your acquaintance. One of our regional representatives will be contacting you shortly. Until that time we would appreciate your absolute secrecy and utmost silence in this matter.

Best regards, Gabrielle Richter Executive Director'

Jazz didn't know what to make of the letter. It had not been there before, was it a ghost? No, Danny would have sensed it if it was a ghost. But then where did the letter come from? And what was a potential?

'One of our regional representatives will be contacting you shortly', Jazz did not like the sound of that. No live person had entered their house since their parents disappeared, other than Danny and Jazz themselves. Jazz looked up to see that Danny had a letter in his hand that was exactly like hers.

He looked over at her letter. "Maybe we should ask Grandpa about this." Danny mumbled. Grandpa was what they called Clockwork ever since he started teaching them history. Jazz nodded lightly and they both put the letters away and continued to listen to Mr. Lancer's rants until the man tired himself out and asked them about their studies in more detail. It took the rest of the car ride to convince him that they were on par or higher in every subject.

In truth Danny had often gotten jealous whenever the Ghost Writer would teach Jazz the middle school curriculum and would watch and try to understand it or pester him until he explained it to Danny to. So Danny was far ahead of the second graders who were still memorizing the multiplication tables and were convinced that the pilgrims were the first settlers and that Christopher Columbus was the first man to set foot in America.

Mr. Lancer pulled up in front of their house. The once proud, if unusual, Fenton Works with its sign and ops center was covered in graffiti and had the mailbox smashed off. Large patches of grass were missing were people had tried to start fires to burn the building down only to find the thing to be fire proof and the glass windows were almost unbreakable. The power lines had been cut, but they had a personal generator in the basement that used ectoenergy to run. The world had tried to get rid of the Fenton children, but they were still holding on strong.

Mr. Lancer tried to advert his eyes from the damaged house. All of the adjacent houses for two blocks were empty and most had for sale signs in front of them. "Here we are." He said with a smile that didn't reach his eyes. Danny and Jazz got out of the car. "Are you sure you two will be alright?" He said, a note of concern in his voice.

Jazz smiled. "Don't worry Mr. Lancer, we'll be fine. We always have been." They turned and went into the safety of the house. Mr. Lancer sighed and drove away, Jazz watching him from the window. "Don't worry Mr. Lancer, we're stronger than you think."


	2. Chapter 2

I own nothing, not the characters, the space where this story exists, or even the eyes that you are using to read it. This is for entertainment proposes only, no money involved.

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><p>"How nice of you two to come and visit." Danny and Jazz could hear the voice of their guardian as they entered the large clock tower that was his domain. "I assume that you two are here to ask about your visions and the letters that you received." The cool and ancient voice of Clockwork that cared its own echo like that of all other ghosts said as he flouted down from an upper level of the clock tower.<p>

The faded blue and green lighting that came from the faces of the surrounding clocks that filled the wall cast a shadow over his pale face underneath his dark purple cloak. The fiery red glow that came from his eyes casted an interesting light on a lone scar that ran down his face.

He grinned at his charges as he watched them roll their eyes. "It's good to see you too, Grandpa." Danny said laughing at the mystique nature of the elderly ghost. The ghost laughed back and waved his staff of time causing three chairs and a table to appear with milk and cookies.

"I am afraid that I should not tell you what you are about to experience just yet. Just be yourselves and listen to your instincts, you will do splendidly." The old ghost said as his body filled with wrinkles and he hunched forward as all his teeth seemed to fade away leaving him looking to the world like an elderly man with a spectral tail instead of legs.

"Well that was informative." Jazz said sarcastically. "How about we just get a jar of fortune cookies and open one every time we think we should visit." Clockwork laughed loudly.

"I suppose you haven't learn as much as you wanted, then how about a quick lesson?" Clockwork asked clapping his hands. His body seemed to shrink and his skin pulled tightly around his smaller body giving him the appearance of a toddler as two front teeth poked out of his gums. One of the glass lenses that he used to look through time flouted over to them. "Today's lesson will be something you have probably already heard about before. The legend of Achilles."

"You mean as in Achilles' heel?" Jazz asked surprised. Usually Clockwork only did lessons on history or politics. This was the first time he stepped into the subject of mythology.

Clockwork nodded and waved a hand over the lens. An image of a woman in a ceremonial Greek robe and blond hair appeared in the lens. "The story begins with a Nymph by the name of Thetis. She was said to have great beauty and wisdom and was coveted by two gods who wanted her as a lover, Zeus the lord of the skies and Poseidon lord of the seas." Clockworks body grew returning him to the appearance of an adult man.

"They argued amongst each other about who should have her. The conflict elevated until it could no longer be ignored. The other gods got Zeus and Poseidon to agree that an oracle would decide where Thetis would belong." Clockwork said and an image of a man standing among the powerful gods appeared. "The oracle had no visions about the Nymph but he realized that his life and the lives of all his people were in danger, for if he said that she should go to one god, his lands would surely suffer the wrath of the other."

Clockwork changed into an old man. "After three days he was visited by Hera, Zeus's wife, who pitied him and had helped raise Thetis. So she told him a way out of his predicament. The oracle told the gods that he had had a vision of Thetis's child, and that it would be a son that was far greater than its father." Clockwork smiled. "The gods were mortified and immediately dropped their requests for Thetis."

"Why's that?" Danny asked confused. "Don't parents want to have successful children?"

Clockwork chuckled. "Normally yes, but the Greek gods were different. You see, they gained there divinity by overthrowing there parents who gained it by overthrowing their parents." Clockwork explained as he changed ages again to that of a toddler. "The gods feared nothing more than a son that would cast them down."

"They don't sound like very good parents." Danny said through a mouth full of cookies causing Jazz to chuckle.

"No one ever accused them of being that." Clockwork laughed. "But their fears of Thetis's child didn't end with just it not being theirs. They worried that any godly child might be powerful enough to overthrow them." Clockwork ate a cookie himself before taking on an adult form. "So they called on Cupid the son of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, and told him to use one of his arrows to make the Nymph to fall in love with a mortal man believing that a half god would never be powerful enough to stand against them."

"Some of the ghosts here would tell them that was a bad idea." Jazz mumbled taking a drink of milk. "Just look at Danny's track record."

Clockwork chuckled. "Yes but it surprisingly didn't backfire on them. They successfully made Thetis fall in love with a mortal king, Peleus, king of the myrmidons." Clockwork said turning forms again to an old man and smiling. "One birds and the bees talk later and Achilles was born." The image on the lens was that of the nymph holding a bundle in her arms with little baby hands sticking out.

"Thetis loved her baby greatly, but wept because she knew that one day the baby would die." Clockwork said and the image changed to include a river. Danny's eyes widened and Jazz also looked like she had made the connection. "I probably don't need to tell you this, but she took the baby down to the underworld and dipped him in the River Styx which is the border between life and death in Greek Mythology and a symbol of all things mortal and immortal. And by dipping the infant into the river she hoped to grant him immortality."

"But her husband had followed her, wondering what she was doing with their child." A man appeared in the image and tried to stop her. "Not understanding what was going on, he stopped her before she could complete the ritual and Achilles remained a mortal. In her rage Thetis left the king and their child swearing never to return. And having sworn literally by the River Styx, she was bound to those words. So even once her anger subsided, she could never return to ones she loved."

"That's… sad." Danny said a little unsure of himself. The entire story sounded familiar.

"Indeed, but Achilles was not unchanged by the ritual. Though still mortal his body was next to invisible and he won many a battle and became known as a hero until the day he died at the battle of Troy from being shot by a volley of thousands of arrows." Clockwork change shape once again and dismissed the lens with a wave of his hand. "They say that the arrow that really did him in came from the sun god himself as vengeance for desecrating his temple. But later retellings of the story done by the Romans, they claimed that he died from a single arrow to the heel that was not invisible because it was what his mother held him by when he was dipped in the river. Thus leading to the saying, 'Achilles' heel'."

"But no one interrupted the woman in my vision." Danny protested, knowing full well that Clockwork knew the details of his vision.

"I know." He said smiling. "Don't expect things to solve themselves immediately. Give it time." Clockwork stood up and stretched. "It is starting to get late. You two should get home if you want to be ready when your first two guests arrive tomorrow morning." Clockwork said with a half grin.

There was a bright flash of green light and Danny and Jazz found themselves back in their basement lab in front of the closed ghost portal with the Spectral speeder, a vehicle that their parents invented to move freely through the Ghost Zone, was parked over in the corner. On a table in a corner was two plates of food with a folded note. Jazz picked up the note and chuckled before handing it to Danny.

'Clean your plates, OR FACE YOUR DOOM. Best regards, Auntie Lunch.' Danny burst into laughter and they took the food upstairs to the microwave. The Lunch Lady's Ghost always gave them lots of meat as well as the rest of the normal food for a balanced diet. Luckily all the exercise they get from training with the long dead experts helped them burn off the extra fat and it turned out to be a good diet for them.

"Remember to wash up before you go to bed." Jazz said as Danny went up the stairs to his room as she cleaned the dishes. Danny nodded and rolled his eyes. Jazz smiled as she watched her little brother go. Clockwork's steadfast belief that they would be fine was enough to calm Jazz and Danny. But he had not said that the people would be safe. And he had said the first two where the letters had only said one. Jazz turned off the sink and left the dishes in the rack before going to a large volt door in the upstairs hallway. Reaching out one hand she pressed in the code F-U-D-G-E.

The door swung open and revealed a weapons vault that was filled to bursting. During the time before their parents disappeared, the vault had only contained the various weapons that their parents had made for fighting ghosts, but in the years since, Danny and Jazz had also stored an assortment of weapons and tools from the Ghost Zone; everything from shields and swords to medicine and Ghostly Super Duct Tape. Jazz took a handheld net gun and took it down stairs to store under the coach before closing the vault door again.

She was walking back to her room when she passed Danny's. She cracked the door open to get a peek and saw that he was sleeping soundly as if the day's troubles were nothing to him; not the letters or visions or even the ugly looks and stones that had been thrown at them by the people they had once worked so hard to protect. The gentle features on his face gave her peace of mind as she lay down in her own bed and went to sleep. But she still had nightmares about the room of nobles and the grinning man the woman kneeled before. There was something about that man that sent chills up Jazz's spine.

The morning seemed to come too soon for the Fenton children. Danny was cheery as he made them breakfast but Jazz was still having trouble waking up after a night of nightmares. "You really need to wake up Jazz." Danny said smiling as he put some toast, eggs and bacon in front of her. "You're the one that always says that we need to make a good first impression on new people."

Jazz yawned as she pulled forward a jar of jam and started to spread it on the toast. "I'm pretty sure they're going to see the condition our house is in before they see us." Jazz said before taking a bite out of the toast. "Listen, I put a net gun under the coach so we'll talk to whoever comes there. Alright?" Danny nodded understanding Jazz was just being on the safe side. Jazz had always been the cautious one, where Danny was one for quick action. They balanced each other out.

As they were finishing breakfast they heard three sharp knocks on the door. Jazz looked up from her plate and raised an eyebrow. "I guess the guests have come." She said getting up to go to the door. "They did see the doorbell right?" She asked herself as the knocks came again.

Jazz opened the door to find a man and a woman standing together on the doorstep. The man was tall with thinning gray hair and held a suitcase, while the woman was smaller but more stoutly built. They both looked to be in their late thirty and wore kind smiles on their faces. "Hello there, I'm Mr. Otters and this is Mrs. Crane, your Jasmine Fenton correct." The man said extending a hand.

Jazz nodded and forced herself to shake the man's hand. She was still feeling uncomfortable about the whole thing and the sight of the man only made it worse. She didn't know why she felt like she should be slamming the door in their faces and locking it. But she managed to force herself to smile. "Yes, but everyone calls me Jazz." She said and then stepped out of the way to let them in. "Please come in."

Jazz led them to the living room and directed them to sit in two chairs in front of the coach. "Thank you." The man said smiling as he took a seat. "We would like to talk to you about the letter you received yesterday. But first could we see your parents?" The man said smiling.

Jazz smiled and shook her head. "Our parents disappeared two years about, and our guardian doesn't live with us." Jazz said sadly.

"Oh I am so sorry." The man said but he had a glint in his eyes that said he was pleased.

"You said 'us', is there someone else here right now?" The woman asked speaking for the first time. Her voice was a little squeakier than the man's.

"Yes, my little brother is finishing his breakfast right now. He will be in here shortly." Jazz said smiling a little to spit her unease.

Right on queue Danny came out of the kitchen and went to the coach to sit next to his sister. "I'm Danny. It's nice to meet you." Danny said nodding in their direction like Jazz had taught him to for a proper greeting.

"Hello there." Mrs. Crane said with a grin. "We were hoping to have a private conversation with your…"

"What? But I thought you were here about our letters?" Danny said in surprise.

The two visitors' eyes widened. "Letters? As in… more than one?" Mr. Otters said in surprise.

Both Danny and Jazz produced there letters. "Why… what's wrong?" Danny asked.

The visitors looked at each other. "Nothing it is just… unusual for more than one to be born into one family, or for someone to be revealed as a potential before they turn twelve."

"Speaking of which, you had your visions yesterday didn't you." Mr. Otters said leaning forward with interest. "Can you tell us what they were?"

"Why?" Jazz said feeling uneasy.

"We're just a little interested." The man said focusing his eyes on Danny who started to feel woozy. "Was your vision pretty. Most of them are such pretty little things." His voice seemed to be clouding Danny's mind. Danny found himself not really minding answering the question.

"No. It was ugly. Really ugly." Danny said. The visitors exchanged existed glances.

"It was ugly you say." Mrs. Crane said with a honey voice. "What was it about?" The two's eyes were dilating rapidly to a very large size.

Jazz felt like the whole thing was seriously wrong. '…listen to your instincts.' Clockwork had said. And Jazz's instincts were telling her to get them away from Danny. "Don't tell them, Danny." Jazz said sharply and Danny was shocked out of his stupor. The visitor glared at her momentarily before smiling again.

"It's alright, we are just curious." Mr. Otters said but Jazz was not fooled.

"I think you should leave before we call the police." Jazz said angrily. The threat for the police was a lie, the police would never come to Fenton Works, but these two actual walked into the place, so they must be from out of town. Danny seemed to be coming around and was glaring at the two in the seats across from them.

Mr. Otters and Mrs. Crane stared intensely at the children before they started to laugh. "Very good very good, he just might be the one." Mr. Otters said with wide eyes and a grin.

"We will be going now." Mrs. Crane said. "But we are taking you with us!" Jazz and Danny hardly batted an eye as the two got up from their chairs and began to grow. Hair shoot out of the body and they moved onto all fours, kicking back the chairs as they grew. They ended up being twelve feet in length and covered in fur. Their faces were like the cross between a human and a dog's and they had large ears like a dingo's.

Jazz reached a hand underneath her seat and pulled out the net gun. She fired it straight at the one that had been Mrs. Crane and she was knocked back by the weighted green net and tangled up in its cables that were made out of pure ectoplasm like most of the Fenton artillery. She tried to struggle against it but then it let off a shock and she shook wildly before going limp.

Mr. Otters was in shock but he soon jumped at the brother and sister. Danny lifted one hand that burst into emerald green flames and a wave of energy came from his hand. The energy struck the creature in the face and it was launched back into the wall with a sickening thud, some of the fur was burned off of the creature's face.

The creature moved around looking up at them in pure terror as Jazz lifted up the net gun. "We've seen bigger." Jazz said and pulled the trigger. The creature shut its eyes tight but nothing happened.

After a second it looked to see Jazz hitting the side of the gun. "Danny, I thought you recharged all the weapons!" Jazz said looking over at her little brother.

"I… I didn't think we were going to use them. Sorry." Danny said sheepishly.

Jazz sighed. "Great. Just freeze him then before…" They looked but the creature was already making a break for the hills, leaving the door wide open and its compatriot behind. "Great." Jazz sighed.

"Sorry…" Danny mumbled looking at his feet.

Jazz rolled her eyes and ruffled the eight year old's hair. "Forget it. I should have checked to make sure it was charged yesterday." Jazz said thinking back to all the times their mother had ended up with an empty weapon because their father had forgot to charge it. "Just get this one into the containment chamber in the basement before it wakes up. I'll lock the door and turn on the security systems. Make sure you pull on your jumpsuit." Jazz said before going and locking the door.

Danny nodded and easily lifted the large unconscious creature and carried it to the basement door.

Jazz went upstairs to her own room and pulled out a sky blue jumpsuit like the one her mother had worn out of her closet. It was extremely loose as she pulled it on over her body, but after she pleased a button in the collar it shrank to become skin tight. After it was on she pulled a sweater and jeans over it to conceal the jumpsuit. Like all Fenton Jump suits it was made to be one size fits all and was fireproof, bulletproof, frost resistant and nonconductive. It also had temperature control so that it felt cool even though it was the summer and she was wearing heavy clothes over it.

Jazz then moved over to her computer and started to access the houses defense systems, a system that would target any heat or ectosignature in the house that didn't have a Fenton Jumpsuit on. It had been deactivated years ago after it had miss took a girl scout for an intruder.

"Danny, do you have your jumpsuit on yet!" Jazz shouted as she held her finger over the final key.

"Yes. And the thing is in the ghost proof observation chamber. Though I don't think it is a ghost." Danny had shouted back.

"Of course it isn't a ghost. Do you think a ghost would be stupid enough to attack us?" Jazz said as she walked back down the stairs to the sound of the priming weapons that were hidden in the walls. Fenton Works was once again a virtual fortress that couldn't be penetrated.

Jazz and Danny were standing outside of the creature's new cage staring at it. "What do you think she is?" Danny asked flicking the glass.

"Don't know. A werewolf maybe." Jazz guessed.

"I thought those had something to do with the moon." Danny said looking back to his sister. They looked back as they heard a groan. "She's waking up." The beast lifted up its huge head. "Hello Mrs. Dog Lady." Danny said waving at the woman.

She stared at them in shock. "What are you two really agents in disguise or something?" The creature asked as its body shrank back into that of Mrs. Crane. Jazz tossed a hand over Danny's eyes.

"What happened to your clothes?" Jazz said in a panic.

"I guess you aren't agents then." Mrs. Crane said glaring at the siblings before he eyes widened and she looked around the lab. "What the heck kind of place is this?"

"I don't think we are going to be answering your questions." Jazz said sharply. "You need to understand the position you're in. Now tell us, who are you and what do you want?" Her eyes traveled back to Jazz. "And if you can talk in it… change back to your hairy form. I don't want my brother looking at your naked body." Jazz said flushing a little.

Mrs. Crane laughed a laugh that made Jazz cringe before changing back into the giant hairy creature. "Better?" It asked in a snappy voice. Jazz nodded and took her hands away from Danny's eyes. Danny seemed flushed by the fact that the thing had been a naked woman more that the fact that there was a giant monster in the room. "You are odd children." It said coldly.

"We get that a lot. But it isn't like your one to talk." Danny said rubbing the back of his head. "What are you anyways?"

"I am a Vye." She spat. "And you should let me out will you still can, before my brethren come to take you away. I am much more gentle than they are."

Jazz rolled her eyes and Danny laughed. "Sorry, but I don't this you understand what's going on." Jazz said as they walked back to the stairs. "I hope your friends bring an army."

Jazz and Danny moved into the Ops center on the roof and over to the control panels and video surveillance. "Do you think more of those things are going to come?" Danny asked his sister. He was more curious than concerned. After all, they had fought off armies of ghosts when they were only five and nine years old, and they had only been getting stronger since then.

"I don't know. This wasn't a random attack. They are probably an organized group. Even if they had no idea what they were in for." Jazz said taking a sip of some coffee that she had made to help wake herself up. Danny giggled at the thought of the surprised look on the male's face when he was hit by Danny's ghost ray. "They seemed to think you were hot stuff and that one got away, so they'll probably be back." Jazz said putting down the cup. "I think I'm going to stash so more weapon's around the house. Make sure you grab whatever you want from the vault before they get here."

Jazz hid several weapon's behind counters and underneath chairs before grabbing her weapons of choice. She kept a Fenton peeler in her pocket but also had a kite shield and a short sword that she had gotten as a present from Princess Dora. She had practiced a lot with them and was good, if not as good as the thousand year old masters that she had trained under.

Danny on the other hand grabbed some clawed gantlets that he got from the Far Frozen before keeping watch at the monitors.

Jazz brought up some playing cards and they sat there for two hours playing old maids and even ate their lunch up in the observation room before something finally happened. "Danny, look." Jazz said point at one of the monitors of the back door.

Six lanky men and women were moving about hunched over slightly as if they half wanted to move around on all fours. One of them grew into another Vye and charged the door slamming into it. But the door didn't budge and the large creature slide to the ground and rubbed its head. Danny burst out laughing.

Another transformed and tried a window only to be electrocuted. Danny went down stairs and looked out the window at them before mooning the Vyes that tried to ram their way through the window only to be shocked again and again. The Vyes split up and began to circle the house trying to find a way in. "This is getting boring." Danny complained the Jazz as they watched the Vyes hurting themselves trying to get into the house.

"Fine, let's get this over with before our neighbors start to notice the werewolves in our yard." Jazz said as she pulled up a command window on the Ops center's computer.

"We don't have neighbor." Danny laughed as Jazz put in the command to open the front down. As soon as it was open the Vyes rushed in. Immediately the family pictures on the wall moved up and ecto-guns moved out of the openings in the wall.

A recording of Jack Fenton's voice shouted out "Ghost!" and the guns opened fire on the confused Vyes. They were blasted by the nonlethal weapons and were in a confused daze.

"Hey Vyes!" Jazz shouted from the top of the stair with her shield and sword in hand. Two of the Vyes tried to dash up the stairs. They had managed to get half way up went two metal cut outs shoot out of the wall from nearly invisible slits. One was of Maddie and the other was Jack. They rammed hard into the sides of the Vyes that hit their heads against the hand rails. They fell back down the stairs and formed a tangled mess on the ground but didn't move.

Jazz went down the stairs and started to fight off another Vye, using her sword and shield to bat away the claws attempts to get at her.

Danny had phased down through the ceiling and fell, landing on the back of one of the Vyes and dug his claws into its back. The Vye screamed and tried to shake of the small boy but he sent a current of ghostly energy through the Vyes body that knocked it out cold. As it was falling to the ground Danny propelled himself towards another using a large amount of ghostly strength and drove it to the ground as he dug into its chest with his now glowing claws.

Jazz had managed to slash across one of her Vye's legs and brought it to the ground where she batted it in the head with her shield and knocked it out.

The last Vye looked back and forth between the two children before trying to runaway, only to have a blob of ectoplasmic goo fall from the ceiling above the door, trapping it until Jazz knocked it out.

Minutes later the Vyes were waking up in the same cell as the first with a medic kit to take care of their injuries. "Well that was fun." Danny said kicking out his legs from a lab table he was sitting on as he grinned at them. "You might want to take care of those wounds before they get infected."

They stared at the boy in horror as he jumped off the table and up to the glass pane that separated them. "I hope you don't have any more friends." He said teasing them. "I don't know how many more of you we can fit in this thing."

Jazz laughed a bit at the looks on the Vyes' faces before getting down to business. "So are you going to tell us what's going on, or should we just leave you in there for a while?"

The Vyes just glared in silence. Until a sound was heard that caught the Fenton children off guard; the doorbell rang. Danny blinked looking up at the ceiling. "We haven't had a single living visitor in over two years and now we get more than eight in one day."

"Come on. Let's take a look at the new ones in the Ops center." Jazz said moving up the stairs.

They reached the Ops center as the door bell rang again and they looked at the cameras. They were a little surprised when instead of a group, there was only a single man standing on their doorstep. He was a decently tall man with sandy hair in a navy blue suit and was wearing wire glasses. At his side was a suitcase the same color as his suit and he was looking around as if confused by what he saw of the house.

"You think it's a trap?" Danny asked his sister.

Jazz was silent for a second before shaking her head. "I… I don't know. But I don't think anyone would come before news that their last team had failed. And as only one person." Jazz reasoned. "Let's see." She reached forward and deactivated the housed defense. "Come on." Jazz said and she and her brother went down to the front door to see how the new guest was.


	3. Chapter 3

I own nothing, not the characters, the space where this story exists, or even the eyes that you are using to read it. This is for entertainment proposes only, no money involved.

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><p>Nigel Bristow had been a Recruiter for several years and he had thought that nothing would surprise him during his job anymore. That was until a week ago when he met a boy named Max McDaniels who had became known to the enemy and attacked by what he believes was a Vye that went by the name of Mrs. Mullen.<p>

So when he came up to the house in Amity Park he was severally worried. It is not the first time he had come to a potentials home to find that the place had been vandalize and people having accused the occupants of witchcraft or some form of magic shortly after their visions. But the Fenton house was a good degree worse than he had ever seen; graffiti and obscenities covered the walls, the mailbox was smashed and it looked like someone had tried to start fires in the yard. He looked down the street to find that there was not another occupied house in sight. In Nigel's professional opinion something was definitely wrong.

As he waited on the front door after ringing the doorbell he looked around himself. He still didn't think that there was any reason to have immediate worries about the Potentials in the house just yet. He was actually excited about meeting them. It was rare that two Potentials appeared at the same time, and they almost never had two potentials coming from the same city during the same year. So to have two appear at the same time, not only from the same city but from the same family was really special.

Though Nigel was only there to test the girl, Jasmine Fenton and had been instructed to tell the boy that he needed to keep quiet until he turned twelve and was old enough to go to Rowan's Academy.

But as he waited he noticed that there were claw marks around the windowsills. Nigel's eyes widened and he pressed the doorbell again. He looked up and down the straight and was starting to wonder if he should use his mystics to force entry into the house when the door opened and two children who were both dressed rather warmly for the hot summer day opened the door.

Nigel let out a sigh of relief that didn't go unnoticed by the children and he smiled warmly in order not to frighten them unnecessarily. "Hello there, I am Nigel Bristow. Would it be safe to assume that you are Jasmine and Daniel Fenton?" He said extending out a hand to shake.

They kids exchanged glances before the girl shook his hand. "Hello Mr. Bristow, I'm Jazz and this is my brother, Danny." She said giving a nervous smile.

"It is a pleasure Jazz but please call me Nigel." He said in his thick British accent. "I am here to talk to you about the letter you received yesterday." The kids glanced again.

"We already saw people about that." The eight year old boy said suspiciously. "You're not with them are you?"

Nigel then noticed the ground behind the children. There was lots of blood all over the floor and he could see several things of claw marks and burns on the ground. "I was supposed to be the only one to come." Nigel said a far off look in his eyes as he surveyed the damage. "What happened here?"

"That's what we want to know." Jazz said putting her hands on her hips. "First we get a letter saying that we would have a visitor. Then two people show up and tried to get Danny to talk about his vision. And then they turn out to be werewolves or something…"

"Vyes." Nigel said wide eyed. "You were attacked by Vyes?" He said trying to push down his panic. He looked around the street as if expecting to see one.

"Yah, that's what the first one said she was called anyways." Danny said looking back at the stairs. "We got seven of them locked up in our basement, but they don't want to talk."

"You have…" Nigel was speechless for a moment but then he shook his head and tried to be professional. "I am sorry, you must have been through quite an ordeal, but I was the one that was supposed to come and speak to you. I was sent by the Director, Gabrielle Richter, to test to see if your sister had the potential to become a mystic and to ask if you, Danny, would keep whatever it is that you saw a secret until you turned twelve and could be tested as well." He said and looked about. Jazz seemed genuinely surprised. "Would you mind if I come inside."

Jazz and Danny looked at each other. "I'm not getting a bad feeling from him like with the others." Jazz said looking to her brother.

"Ok I guess." Danny said and they stepped aside and let Nigel in. Nigel stepped over the pool of blood and a large green blob on the middle of the floor and looked at them with distaste. Moving his hand he said something in a language that Danny and Jazz couldn't understand and the pools of blood and ectoplasm shrank out of existence.

Jazz and Danny's eyes widened and they seemed pleased enough from the demonstration. Nigel smiled. He always gave a little demonstration to show the kids what they would be working towards. Children were always fascinated by the mysterious. "Right then, first this I should probably do is call the Director. She would want to know about this. Potentials being found and targeted by the enemy is serious business." He said and opened his suitcase. Reaching down into it down to his shoulder he pulled at a cell phone. Danny seemed delighted and jumped up and down.

"How does it work?" Danny asked excitedly.

"Oh this old thing. This is nothing but a simple charm. You will learn how to do it when you get older if you are accepted into the Rowan Institute." Nigel said smiling before opening his phone and punching in Ms. Richter number. After three rings she picked up. "Gabrielle, it's Nigel."

"Nigel I'm in the middle of a meeting right know. Can it wait?" Ms. Richter's voice said from the other side.

"I'm afraid not. I'm at the house of the two new potential. The Enemy has somehow found their location. It was Vyes." Nigel said trying not to sound too serious in front of the children or say anything that they shouldn't know.

"So two more of our potentials have been taken." Ms. Richter said sadly.

"No actually. It seems that the two fought and capture seven of them. Can you send agents over right now to take them?" Nigel said smiling at the two children. Jazz looked a bit pleased with herself and Danny was giggling.

"Is this some kind of a joke Nigel?" Ms. Richter sound half way between reproachful and excited.

"This is no joke Ms. Richter." He said a little more seriously as he heard howls coming from an open door that led to a basement. "I have not got the details yet but there are definitely living Vyes."

"Then I will send a team over right away. No wait. I'll go myself." Ms. Richter said quickly. "I will be there in three hours, so make sure that the children stay safe."

The line went dead on the other side. Nigel looked down at it smiling. "Well this is a treat. The Director is coming down here herself. She will be here in three hours." He said with a smile. Then he looked a little sad. "I know it might be hard on you but… could you tell me everything that happened here today?" He asked calmly.

"If you can explain what's going on." Jazz said with a shrug. "The closest thing we have had to an explanations was someone saying 'all will be made clear in time'."

Nigel laughed. "It's a deal then but first let us sit down." He walked towards the windows and started muttering again in that language that the children couldn't understand and sweeping his hands. But then he suddenly stopped. "That's odd. There are already powerful wards around this house." He said checking another window and another. "This is… most odd."

Danny and Jazz looked at each other. They had no idea about the wards. It could have been one of the ghosts that didn't want anyone to harm them, or maybe it was just something that their mom and dad invented that just seemed like a ward.

Nigel then looked into the basement but Jazz grabbed his arm. "I just thought you should know. They don't have any clothes on." She said a little embarrassed.

Nigel laughed and took a quick peek seeing the naked Vyes trying to wrap their wounds with an old first aid kit from inside a heavy glass cell. He had to stop himself from gapping at all the devices that were about the basement. 'Are they children of agents?' He thought in wonder. 'No, agents' children are rarely ever potentials, and there were no agents by the name of Fenton.' He came back up covering his eyes. "You're right they aren't." He laughed and put a ward on the door to the basement.

He then returned to the living room and sat down in a chair as Danny and Jazz sat on the coach across from him. "Well I can honestly say that in all my years as a Recruiter I have never seen two potentials that could take down seven Vyes by themselves." Danny and Jazz didn't really seem that interested in the Vyes.

"Are you going to tell us about the magic now?" Danny said excitedly, his sister looked equally excited.

Nigel laughed. "Alright then. As I said I am a Recruiter, which means that I go around and interview all the Potentials to see if they have what it takes to become… a mystic of sorts." He said with a smile. "You see, when you two had your visions the other day, we became aware of you." He said pointing at them. "You two have a special spark inside of you. I am supposed to see if you have enough of that something to give you the potential to become one of us."

"So you want to turn me into a witch?" Jazz asked thinking about the irony.

Nigel winced. "Um… no. Witches are more… what is the tactful word… focused. They are withdrawn from the rest of the world and do nothing but practice their mystics and spells." Nigel said smiling. "We merely wish to teach you to use what gifts you have. On top of mystics you would learn advance technology like the kind I spotted in your basement and all about the magic in this world and its true history as well as all the things you would learn in a normal school; math, science…" Jazz looked like she liked the sound of it. She felt more comfortable around Nigel than the Vyes, and Clockwork had told them to trust their instants. "Of course after your training you can go out into the world and do whatever you wish. Graduating from our institute will grant you access to just about every university in the world. Or if you decide that you wish to spend your life protecting your fellow man from creatures like those Vyes, then we will give you an organization that you can do it with. Or you can become a teacher or a Recruiter like me. The possibilities are endless."

Now Jazz was really excited. Danny grinned at his sister knowing that she was thinking about her dream of becoming a child psychiatrist. "Well know I like that face." Nigel laughed and Jazz released she was being too transparent and scold at the man. "Oh don't be like that." Nigel said grinning madly as Danny giggled. "Now then, I told you all about why I'm here. So why don't you tell me about your day?"

Jazz nodded and began to tell the story of their day. She only kept out Danny throwing the blast of energy out of his hand and replaced that with an ecto-gun. She also didn't mention how they got the Vyes down the stairs to the basement, but Nigel didn't ask. He just sat silently listening to their story. Then he asked if they wouldn't mind sharing their visions. After a moment's hesitation they did. "Well that is quite a story." Nigel said at the end, managing to keep his composer. "How you two handled it all does speak highly of your abilities as potentials. And those visions were of definite events and people; Saint Jean of Arc's finding of the king and the washing way of Achilles' mortality. Very promising." Jazz looked surprised at him saying that her vision had been of the famous woman that helped lead the French during the hundred year war. Nigel then looked at his watch. "We have fifteen minutes before the director gets here. So how about we have some dinner."

The doorbell rang. "Oh rats, I thought I would be able to sneak some comfort food before she got here." Nigel said causing Danny to laugh.

Jazz went and opened the door and three man in dark suits pushed past her making no more noise than a shadow. "Hey! Don't you know it's rude to come into someone's house before they invite you in!?" Jazz shouted as they went by.

"My apologies, but they are never very talkative." A voice said from outside the door. Jazz turned to see a tall woman with gray hair and sharp features with a gray suit jacket on. "Please, my I came in."

Jazz smiled and nodded as she moved so that the woman could enter. "Director." One of the men that had pushed past Jazz said looking back to the woman. "Nigel was right. Seven Vyes in containment unit. How do you want to proceed?" The man said in short spurts, as if he wasn't used to talking.

"We will need to get some Passive Fetters on them." Ms. Richter said looking down into the basement with the other. "It's going to be hard with all of them so close together."

"There is a lever that sends knock out gas into the container, if that helps!" Jazz shouted to them. "It's the blue one!"

"Thank you!" Ms. Richter's voice came back from below. After a few moments she came up out of the basement. "Well this really is remarkable." She said in surprise. "You two have done us a great favor today." She said to Jazz and Danny who still didn't feel like the day and been anything beyond the normal scoop. Ms. Richter then turned to Nigel. "How did she do on the tests?"

"We actually haven't done them yet, Director, since I was questioning them about the day's event and all." Nigel said a little embarrassed.

"Well then. We should test her now." She said looking at Jazz. "Where are your parents anyways?" She asked as if the thought had just accrued to her. "How long have they been out?"

"They… they disappeared two years ago." Jazz said sadly. "We don't know what happened."

"You two just live here… all on your own?" Nigel said incredulously.

"For the most part…" Jazz responded.

Ms. Richter looked over at Danny. "Well… Rowan academy is a school for children ages twelve and up, because that is when most children receive their visions. Normally if someone has their vision early then we simply wait for them to become the proper age."

"I'm not leaving Danny!" Jazz said sharply and pulled her little brother to her.

Ms. Richter nodded. "There are a lot of variables involve that are usually not there." Ms. Richter said. "Potentials usually are not usually related, they are not usually orphans with no other family, and they are not usually found and targeted by the Enemy."

Nigel was blinking rapidly. "Director… are you saying that you are going to test the boy as a potential?" Nigel said in surprise.

Ms. Richter smiled. "Well… I think we can skip the third test for these two. They don't lack loyalty or courage."

Nigel began to laugh. "I always hated that one. The children always wetted their pants."

"So… I can go to the magic school with Jazz?" Danny asked hopefully. Danny erupted into cheers of joy when Ms. Richter nodded.

"Now hold on there. You still need to pass the tests." Ms. Richter said putting a hand on the boy's shoulder and pushing back down. "Nigel, if you please. I think I will just watch." She said with a light smile. "Consider it an early performance review."

"Right, let's began then." Nigel said smiling and opening up his briefcase and pulling out an instrument that looked like a silver tennis racket without any strings and with a series of buttons on the handle. Danny grinned widely since the racket was too big to have fit in the case. "Let's start with the young lady first, since she was the one I was here to test in the first place." Nigel said and guided Jazz to a table where she could sit with her feet hanging down without touching the ground.

Nigel pulled out a tape recorder. He considered doing a prank like he usually did on the potentials, but decided against it with his boss so nearby. Turning on the tape recorder he began to talk into it. "Senor Recruiter Nigel Bristow, beginning the stander series of potential tests on Ms Jasmine Fenton, age twelve, of Amity Park, Illinois, United States of America." Nigel said and gave Jazz an encouraging nod. "First test to be administered is the physical aptitude test. Now I assume you have been to the doctors and he has hit you in the knee with a rubber mallet, well this is kind of like that. I am going to put your leg into this device right here and when I turn it on it will give you a bit of a shock, nothing painful, but it should make you want to kick out your leg. What you need to do is resist this urge and try to keep your leg as straight as you can and don't touch the device. Are you ready?" Jazz nodded.

Nigel messed with some of the knobs on the handle and a ring of white light appeared in the inside of the racket and the thing began to give off a whine. Jazz had been round devices all her life so she wasn't afraid at all of the thing.

Nigel slipped the ring around Jazz's leg and up to her knee. "Ready and… go." The machines whine raise and Jazz struggled with keeping her leg still. Looking down she could see it twitching rapidly back and forth never quite exiting the bounds. Jazz frowned and with an exertion of will she decreased the distance of the twitches. A small amount of sweet formed on her brow but not enough to form drops.

Finally the machine's pitch began to slow down until it came to a halt. Nigel pulled the device off of Jazz's leg and took a look at the reading. Turning on the recorder he spoke into it again. "Lactic production rate 78, lactic dispersion rate 83, twitch speed 82, muscular density current 75, muscular density projected 82, synaptic bypass 98… that is interesting, mental stress fatigue 85." He turned off the recorder and smiled at Jazz. "Well done. High scores all around." Nigel said before turning to Ms. Richter who was also nodding her approval. "Should I do Danny's now or do it after Jazz's second test?"

"Might as well do it right now." Ms. Richter said looking at the excited little boy.

Danny went through the same process of getting ready and Nigel turned on the device. Danny looked completely fine as he tensed his leg and pulled back his muscles as they tried to swing out of his control. After the moments and his turn was done Nigel read off the results. "Lactic production rate 85, lactic dispersion rate 87, twitch speed 90, muscular density current 69, muscular density projected 72, synaptic bypass 80, mental stress fatigue… 112." Nigel said and both his and Ms. Richter's eyes widened in surprise. "That is… something else. The muscular density may have to be remeasured at a later date do to the fact that the subject is only eight years old." Nigel said and turned off the tape recorder.

"I have never even heard of anyone getting above a 91 on mental stress fatigue before." Ms. Richter said thoughtfully as her eyes fell on Danny. "That is impressive."

"What do all those numbers mean?" Jazz asked.

"You can find all that out later once you get to Rowan if your still interested then, but we need to get on with the tests." Nigel said regaining his composer and pulling five large logs out of his breath case. He carried them over and put them in the fireplace. Then with a wave of his hand all the lights in the room went out and a strong fire emerged from the logs. "Alright, Jazz it's your turn again." Nigel said with a smile. "Now this is going to be a bit different. The last test was just you using the muscle that you know that you can use. But for this test you will have to do something that you don't believe that you can do." He said taking Jazz by the arm and maneuvering her in front of the fire, around seven steps away from it. "I want you to put out that fire from right here."

Jazz looked at him in surprise. "But… I don't know how you do those thing you do."

"It's actually quite simple really. All you have to do his hold out your hand with your palm pointing towards the fire and imagine the fire dying down, then drop your arm." Nigel instructed.

Jazz looked over at the fire and did as she was told. But she found herself unable to think about the fire. She kept remembering the times when Danny had just started to learn about his powers and how she had told him to make the balls of energy and then absorb them back. It was this image in her mind when she first released her arm.

The fire shank and Danny had to stop himself from giving a scream of joy. Jazz smiled but she heard Nigel telling her to continue. After she had successfully stopped the fire she was feeling a little tired from the effort. "Time elapsed, 23.55 second. That is impressive." Nigel said and picked up one of the logs. "No residual heat too. It took me over three minutes to put out my first flame and the wood was still hot enough to roast marshmallows on." He said a little depressed.

"Thanks." Jazz said taking a breath. "But I bet Danny won't take nearly that long." Jazz said proudly looking at her little brother.

"Well… we'll see." Nigel said and reignited the logs with a wave of the hand. Danny stood in front of the fire and looked at it closely. It was just an ordinary flame. Raising up one hand in the way he and seen his sister do it, he let his hand drop.

The flames looked like they were pulled back into the wood and immediately died. Not only that but a small layer of frost coated the surface of the logs. Nigel's jaw dropped as he inspected the logs. "Under one second." He said flatly. "He even froze the water in the air around the fire."

"Looks like Miss. Boon no longer holds the record for fastest fire extinguished during Potentials tests." Ms. Richter said looking quite pleased. "I am glad you will be joining us at Rowan, Danny, Jazz. Though, while you're at school I don't want you to discuss the events of today with your classmates, it's for the best if we don't start up rumors." Jazz and Danny nodded understandingly. Ms. Richter produced two cream colored envelopes like the ones from before and handed them to Jazz and Danny. "The school year is starting in just two days. We can get you two on an airplane and…"

"I'm afraid we can't." Jazz said sadly causing the woman to stop.

"But I thought that you wanted to go as long as your brother could go with you." Ms. Richter said raising an eyebrow.

Jazz shook her head. "No that's not it. We just can't take a plane out of this town." Jazz said before adverting her eyes. "This town is… superstitious… and they say that we're cursed because our parents disappeared the day all the ghosts went away." Ms. Richter's forehead seemed to crease with age. "We rarely ever leave this house. Yesterday was the first time in months, and then we couldn't even get on the bus and the other children tried to stone us."

"Stone you!" Nigel freak out. He had never heard of people trying to stone orphaned children.

"Mr. Lancer, the Vice Principle at the school we used to go to, he's still nice to us." Danny said as if he thought that made everything better. Ms. Richter and Nigel looked like they might burst into tears.

"Our house was built to be like a fortress." Jazz said putting an arm around Danny. "While inside we're safe, but we can't leave all that easily."

"What do you think Director?" Nigel said looking at Ms. Richter.

Ms. Richter bit her lip in concentration. "We didn't have enough free agents to protect them on the planes anyways." She said slowly. Then she turned her head when she saw the children cover their eyes to see the Vyes being led out of the house with the tethers. She looked at the agents and smiled. "Cooper." She called out and one of the agents with a burn scar on his face came over. The man was pale and the children could only barely see some blond hair sticking out from a ski cap on his head.

"Director." He said in a gruff voice.

"I want you to give these two some Nanomail." Ms. Richter said with a smile. "We'll get them to a safe house by passing them off as agents that were working undercover and then we can move them to Rowan from there."

The man Cooper turned his head and looked at the Fenton children. "Yes Director."

"Should we get ready?" Jazz asked nervously.

"Don't worry, you will be provided everything you will need when you get to Rowan." Nigel said with a smile. "We have a uniform anyways. And the enemy might realize that you are not agents if you have suitcases."

"I… I meant should we prepare our own weaponry for the trip." Jazz said before reaching under the coach they were sitting on and pulling out a large silvery riffle like weapon. Ms. Richter and Nigel seemed surprised but Cooper nodded his approval.

"What do you two use?" He asked.

"I use mostly guns and a shield and sword combo. Danny usually uses claws and spears." Jazz said as Danny pulled his pair of claws out from between the seat cushions, they still had the Vyes' blood on them.

"I noticed the wounds on some of the Vyes were short sword and claw wounds." He nodded. "You do good work and without getting scratched. That's important when dealing with Vyes."

"Agents in the making." Nigel muttered as the children followed Cooper. "And all before they even arrive at Rowan and they don't seem to fear anything, not even Cooper." Nigel looked over at his boss. "You sensed it to, didn't you?"

She nodded. "They both have a little of the old magic in them just like McDaniels and Menlo."

Nigel sighed. "Potentials under attack, paintings stolen, Vyes attacking in large organized numbers instead of just the normal pairs, and the return of the old magic, four in one generation when we haven't had any in nearly four hundred years; what do you think it all means?"

"It means that our time of peace is coming to an end." Ms. Richter said sadly. "And soon the fate of the world will be in their hands."


	4. Chapter 4

I own nothing, not the characters, the space where this story exists, or even the eyes that you are using to read it. This is for entertainment proposes only, no money involved.

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><p>"Jazz, I'm bored." Danny whined softly from the back of the auditorium were the Rowan Academy was giving its 'official' schedule for the parents that were being kept in the dark about the true nature of the academy.<p>

"Please try to bear with it, Danny." Jazz said to the disinterested eight year old, but she had to admit that it wasn't much fun compare to hanging around the agents. Quiet and rude as they maybe, Danny and Jazz had more in common with them than with the kids that were sitting with their parents listening to the welcoming speech.

A woman named Miss Awolowo, which Danny thought was a mouth full to say, was explaining something about accessories that are allowed with the students uniforms, but Danny didn't really care. Jazz was the one that used the Fenton Wrist Lasers, and she didn't really need them here.

Miss Awolowo was a tall and proud looking African woman with a deep accent. Danny thought she said something about being from Nigeria and how the school gave her the opportunity to seek higher learning. Danny's head soon hit the table with a thud earning him reproachful looks from the surrounding parents that thought education should be serious and not fun. Danny was starting to miss Clockwork and the Ghost Writer's ways of just jumping in and explaining later.

The door at the top of the stares gave a loud creek and Danny and Jazz turned their heads to the mental stimulus. In the doorway was Nigel, he was leading a boy that was the same age as the rest of the class other than Danny. He was pretty tall but not the tallest in the new class, and he had dark brown messy hair and pretty high cheek bones. At the moment he looked a little mortified about all the eyes that were on him.

"Oh there you are. I was beginning to wonder." Miss Awolowo said smiling from the podium at the front of the room. "Ladies and gentlemen, please say hello to Max McDaniels, who joins us from the city of Chicago, right here in the United States."

Danny smiled and waved a hand. "Hi Max!" he shouted causing a few giggles. Nigel spotted Jazz and Danny and led Max over to the empty seat next to Jazz. Miss Awolowo continued to talk about the rules to the parents. "Hi Nigel, it's good to see you again." Danny smiled to the Recruiter.

"It is good to see you too, Danny." Nigel said with a grin. "Max this is Jazz Fenton and her younger brother Danny. They will both be in your class." Max's eyes looked questioningly at the eight year old boy but said nothing. "Now, I am going to clean up a bit and make some calls. See you later, before Configuration." He said and then walked away.

Max nodded but then turned asking. "Wait, what's Configuration?" But Nigel was already gone.

Jazz chuckled a little and he turned to them. "Don't worry." She whispered. "You haven't missed anything. They can't talk about mystics or old magic in front of the parents. So this is all the stuff that only the parents really care about; school holidays, rules, future opportunities and the like." Max nodded as if not sure what to do.

Danny grinned widely showing a few missing teeth were his adult teeth had yet to grow in. "But as soon as everyone's parents leave the fun can began." He said excitedly. "I want to learn how to make one of those bags, like the one Nigel had."

Max chuckled at the younger boy but then they were all shushed by a girl with braises in the row in front of them and her mother. Danny looked glum again and his head hit the table as the presentation continued. But soon the presentation was over and they filled outside were Danny and Jazz stood around awkwardly with Max as the other kids had teary goodbyes with their parents.

Once all the parents were gone, Miss Awolowo led them into the great entrance to the dorms. She climbed one of the staircases so that everyone could see her clearly. "Alright children, we now must get you situated in your rooms." She said in her deep honeyed voice. "Before room assignments however, I would like to make one thing clear about your new home. Until you are given a full tour of the grounds and premises, I would ask you to only visit those rooms and areas that I designate. As you will see, Rowan's campus is… strange and unpredictable. Even our most senor of staff does not completely understand it and its ways." Danny was grinning with excitement. He had always loved exploring the vastness of the Ghost Zone and was happy to hear that Rowan was, if not as big, at least made as little sense. "As it is only our first day, I have no desire to rescue or mourn any full hearty students."

The speech was enough for the rest of the class, but Danny and Jazz had been through the Ghost Zone, and even if they didn't go out of their way to explore on day one, nothing would stop them from exploring the grounds.

Nigel came out of another door and joined the group. "Wonderful." Miss Awolowo continued with a smile. "Now before the Configuration begins, let me say the following. If history has taught us anything, it is that some students are inevitable disappointed with their rooms or their roommates or both. If this is the case, I am sorry, but urge you to make the best of it. Room configurations and roommate assignments cannot be changed. So no crying, no whining, agreed?" It wasn't really a question but people nodded throwing around nervous looks at each other. "Excellent, this is Nigel Bristow, I believe some of you have already met him. He will be showing the boys their rooms, will I will be showing the girls."

Jazz ruffled Danny's hair and said that they would meet up later before following the rest of the girls. Danny walked over to Nigel and was feeling a bit nervous. Danny hadn't had to interact with normal humans without Jazz since they had started being home schooled.

But Nigel seemed perfectly cheerful. "Alright boys, follow me." Danny followed the other boys up the stairs to the third floor. He was getting glances by the other boys who had long since noticed that he was younger than the rest of them. "Come on boys keep up." Nigel said happily. "North wing's for the gents, the ladies stay in the south wing. So if you find yourself without a urinal in sight… then you know you're in the wrong place." Nigel joked and the boys giggled. They came on dozens of rows of gleaming green doors, and Nigel led them to the far end of the hallway. Danny noticed that where the first two dozen doors had had names on the plaques next to them these doors plaques were empty. Danny felt something coming from behind each of the doors. A powerful presents, like the ones he felt from the flouting doors that lead to the lairs of older and stronger ghosts.

Reaching the end of the hall Nigel turned to them and smiled. "Let's see 40… 60… 70… 72… looks like we didn't lose anyone, hurray for me." He said before clapping his hands. "Now when I say go, I want you to search for your names and stand by the door that has your name on it. And do nothing else!"

A stocky boy with brown hair and blue eyes raised his hand. He had an extremely thick Irish accent, but Danny had heard thicker in the Ghost Zone. "Our names are already on them?" The boy asked.

"What is your name oh curious creature." Nigel said happily.

"Connor Lynch." The boy said with a bit of pride.

"No." said Nigel rubbing his hands together. "But they will be, that's part of the fun. You see, you don't pick your roommates, and neither do we. That is the Manse's job. Everyone ready? Go find your room."

Danny was pushed around in the immediate bustling through the hall as the boys tried to find their rooms. Danny waited for the chaos to start to form a rhythm as people decide on search methods before he started to glide among them throwing light glances at the plaques. There were a few shouts of excitement from people who had managed to find their names but Danny didn't pay attention to them.

Once he had gotten a little more than half way through the group of doors he felt a familiar presents. It was the same energy that radiated from the land of the Far Frozen and Danny felt gravitated towards it. It was a feeling that reminded him of home.

Danny found himself standing alone in front of one of the doors and stared as his name suddenly appeared on the plaque, 'Daniel Fenton'. "My name's there to, isn't it?" Danny turned around but the question wasn't being asked to him. On the opposite side of the hall was Max and a pale boy with blond hair and purplish rings underneath his eyes. Danny thought he didn't look very healthy.

Max blinked at the boy and then looked at the plaque next to his door and said. "Are you David Menlo?" The sickly boy nodded. "I'm Max."

Nigel had been scolding an Asian boy named Jesse for trying to open his door when he spotted Danny, Max and David. He walked over to them. "Who are your groups missing?" He asked.

Max looked at his plaque. "It's just us."

"I'm the only one here." Danny said with a shrug.

"Really?" Nigel said and looked at the doors. "Will you look at that?" He said thoughtfully. Danny noticed that most of the other rooms and four or five people. They were all looking curiously at Danny. But Nigel started everyone up again. "Alright now, when I tell you to, I want you to open your doors and enter your rooms. Once inside you will lock the door behind you and shut your eyes. You will soon feel dizzy, it's to be expected. Keep your eyes closed until the feeling disappears entirely. To be safe, I recommend you count to three once the dizziness stops before you open your eyes. Everyone clear?" The children all nodded their understanding. "Alright gents, please enter your rooms and let the configurations began."

Danny reached out and opened his door. Stepping inside he closed it behind him and closed his eyes before turning the lock. After a moment's pause Danny's body felt like it was accelerating at tremendous speeds will spinning like a top, as if he was using the infinity map. The sensation grew and intensified for about twenty seconds, though it felt longer to the dizzy eight year old boy. But Danny had gained a certain level of resistance to such things through various experiences he had had in the Ghost Zone, so he was barely starting to feel queasy when the feeling began to subside.

Danny felt a familiar chill in the air and his heart began to race. He slowly counted to three and then opened his eyes. A grin broke across Danny's face as he looked around himself in amazement. When he had started he had been in a small room with no furniture and no windows. But now he was standing in the entry way of what looked like a Cathedral made entirely out of ice, more than twice as big as the entire dormitory that he was now located in.

Danny walked around his eyes going from one intricately carved pillar to another. Each was a milky white and sky blue coloring and had images of places he had seen in the ghost zone. There were long stools like you would see in a normal Cathedral and stained windows that Danny believed had to have been made out of different colors of ice which had depictions of his ghostly friends.

Once Danny had made it to the center of the room he could see that there were two doors in the far wall behind the pedestal as well as a spiral staircase that looked like it would lead up to a clock tower if the room had one. Looking up to were a pearly glow was illuminating the room and saw a large blue and green crystal in the shape of one of Clockwork's medallions.

Danny was shocked out of his admiring the structure by a loud knock on the still normal green door. Danny gasped remembering that they were supposed to might up with his sister and the rest of the girls group after the Configurations. He pulled a bit of ghostly energy into his step and bounded across the hundred feet that lay between him and the door.

Turning the lock Danny opened the door to see Nigel standing there. "Oh there you are. I was starting to get worry that you went and lost yourself." He said in his jolly British accent. "Mind if I have a look?" He asked.

"Oh… ok." Danny said nervously as he realized that there was a large stained ice window that showed a five year old white haired boy in a robot suit doing battle with a giant with flaming green hair and an eye patch who was wielding a mace.

Nigel stepped inside and shivered. "Well it sure is cold in… here." The words seemed to die as he gazed around the iced Cathedral. "Well… this is a lot more imaginative then my old room." He finally said as he looked at a carving on a pillar that Danny realized was of the dragon form of Princess Dora. Nigel was rubbing himself for warmth and Danny could see his breath. "Are you going to be ok in here?" Nigel asked looking a little concerned.

Danny smiled and stretched out his arms. He was in a short sleeved T-shirt. "I like it." He said with a grin. "It reminds me of my uncle's."

"Wow!" A voice said from the door way. Danny turned his had to see the boy Connor staring from the door with wide eyes. "Guys come lookie at what the little guy made!" Max and David as well as some people that Danny didn't have a name for were looking in.

Danny could see them shivering in the doorway. Danny felt completely at home in the cold room and thought cold was little more than a slight chill even though it was several degrees below freezing. As Danny left Max asked him. "How can you be ok in there?" David sneezed loudly before backing away from the room.

Danny thought fast answered, "I guess it's just the magic of the room." He said hoping that everyone would accept the typical excuse of 'magic'.

"That is probably the case." Nigel said as he exited the room still rubbing his arms. "Every room is always different depending on its inhabitances. I've never seen two that are quite alike before."

"But Nigel, how did the rooms change? Didn't you change them?" A boy asked.

"Me?" Nigel laughed. "Oh dear heavens no. This is old magic, far older and more powerful than anything Nigel Bristow can conjure up." He waved off the comment. "But more about the Manse and old magic after dinner. Can you all help me round everyone up?" He asked.

Everyone jumped to it and went around gathering people from rooms of Japanese temples, Roman Palaces, and ships captain's quarters, though nothing seemed to be of the size of Danny's room. Danny's favorite was Max and David's room that had a large dome that showed the night sky and all the constellations on it.

It reminded him of back when he had dreamed of being an astronaut. Then Danny realized that with the education and connections from Rowan he really could become one. "I don't suppose one of you would want to trade me?" Danny had asked them.

Connor who had been nearby laughed. "I don't think anyone but you can survive in that room of yours, Danny-boy." He said in his thick Irish accent. David nodded in agreement before coughing. Danny shrugged his shoulder before following the older boys down the stairs and out the building to meet with the girls group.


	5. Chapter 5

I own nothing, not the characters, the space where this story exists, or even the eyes that you are using to read it. This is for entertainment proposes only, no money involved.

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><p>Danny came out to the fountain right outside the Manse and immediately looked through the crowd to find his sister. Spotting her with two other girls he ran down snaking his way through the groups of boys and girls who were all trying to talk over one and other about their room configurations.<p>

"Ha Jazz." Danny said as he moved up behind her.

Jazz turned and smiled at Danny. "Hi Danny, these are my new roommates; Lucia." Jazz gestured to a rather skinny girl with black hair. "and Cynthia." Cynthia was a tall plump red haired girl.

"Um… hi." Danny said looking unsure of himself.

"Oh he's so cute." Cynthia said moving closer and starting to pet Danny on his head. Danny blushed with embarrassment before backing away and hiding behind Jazz.

"You're the little boy who's joining our class." Lucia said with a thick Italian accent that made it sound like she disapproved. "How are you and Jazz acquainted?" She asked.

"Danny's my little brother." Jazz said smiling at the young hero who was using her as a shield.

Danny was horrified when more and more of the girls there came over to either gush over his cuteness or complain about being put in the same boat as an eight year old. Danny was starting to consider just sinking into the ground when Connor came to his rescue.

"Calm down there ladies. You're giving the poor bugger a heart attack." Connor said in his Irish accent. He flashed a smile at the girls as he move over to stand protectively next to Danny. Danny didn't understand why but some of the girls giggled.

"And who are you?" Danny was starting to wonder if Lucia just always sounded condescending.

Connor flashed the girl another smile and did an elaborate bow. "Connor Lynch, at your serve." Lucia just glared at him and Connor only seemed happier for it. "Come on Danny-boy. Let's get your out of here before they make you their dress up doll." Danny followed Connor a little gratefully as he heard complaints behind him. Jazz waved goodbye to the other girls as she followed them.

"Thanks Connor." Danny said flushing red.

"I can't believe I had to rescue a bloke from a mob of ladies. You're a lucky one, Danny-boy." Connor chuckled.

"What was that about?" David said walking up with Max.

"Apparently Danny-boy is a chick magnet." Connor said with faked jealously.

Jazz chuckled a little. "Nothing like that ever happened back home." Jazz said before introducing herself. "I'm Jazz, Danny's older sister. Are any of you Danny's roommates?"

"No, Danny got a room to himself. I'm David Menlo, I going to be live across the hall from him with Max." David said pointing a finger at Max before dropping his hand to cough into it.

"Danny got a room to himself?" Jazz said a little surprised. "What did it end up looking like?"

"Oh, Danny-boy got Superman's fortress of solitude. A giant space that looked like it was made out of ice and felt like it was in the Arctic Circle." Connor said laughing. "We couldn't even stand in the place without shivering but Danny-boy was fine."

"That does sound like Danny." Jazz said looking knowingly at her little brother.

"And what did you get, a library?" Danny asked. Jazz chuckled before nodding. "You're such a nerd."

"Students please gather around." Miss Awolowo said calling for attention. "Alright, now that the Configurations are complete, we'll take a brief tour of Rowan's grounds before we have supper. If you would please follow me to the orchard, then we can begin."

The students all followed Miss Awolowo to the back of the Manse. Danny and Jazz walked with David, Max and Connor as Miss Awolowo led the group to the first tree.

"The apples!" one of the girls shouted excitedly. "They're made of gold!"

Danny looked up at the apples that were indeed made of gold and thought that they should probably be backing away. In the Ghost Zone such a thing would be a trap that was used to lure in a greedy victim. Jazz also took a step back thinking the same thing.

Jesse Chu, the same chubby Asian boy that had tried to open his door before instructed, moved forward and stood on the balls of his feet trying to reach one. Danny grabbed the back of his shirt and pulled him back. "What gives?" he asked angrily.

"Don't you think that the apples haven't been picked for a reason?" Jazz snapped at the boy. "You should think before you touch, unless you want something to take your fingers." Jesse's eyes widened and he shoved his hands in his pocket.

"You are right that you must never touch these apples, but they would not have harmed him." Miss Awolowo said as she came up. "Thank you for stopping him. You see, these trees are sacred. Let me explain a little about the Rowan orchard. Daniel, will you please read that plaque for me?"

Danny looked down at a plaque in front of the tree. "Fiat Lux, Class of 1653." Danny read off.

"Thank you. Does anyone know the expression or why we are looking at this tree?" Miss Awolowo asked.

"Fiat Lux is Latin, literally meaning allowing light, or in the less literal translation 'let there be light'." Jazz said looking up at the tree. "I don't know what the date means though."

A tall blond boy whose nametag said that his name was Rolf spoke up next. "The brochure said that 1653 was when Rowan graduated its first class." He had a German accent and looked like he was fourteen instead of just twelve.

"Very good. This is a sacred tree, a Class Tree, that represents Rowan's very first graduating class. They chose Fiat Lux as a class motto because they came here during a time of great darkness. There is a tree in this orchard for every class at Rowan." Miss Awolowo explained. "Every year the Class Trees bear one apple for each living member of their class. When a member of that class has passed on, their apple turns to gold. And so we remember them, and we do not touch these apples. Take a few moments and walk among them." She said and waved a hand towards the orchard.

Danny and Jazz were walking around and looked at some of the younger trees that still had many golden apples. "I guess this world has death too." Danny said looking at the tree for a class only twelve years earlier. There were already a handful of golden apples among the red.

"Danny… I'm sure that they had enjoyed their lives and don't have any regrets." Jazz said messing with Danny's hair. Danny had met so many hundreds of ghosts, each with a horrible death. Danny smiled at the thought that these people may have died, but that they might have at least not have died with regrets.

"Miss Awolowo, there is something wrong with one of the apples on our class tree!" One of the students shouted. Jazz's eyes widened and she ran over with Danny at her heels.

When they got there Jazz looked up to see that one of the apples on the youngest tree was red with golden strips like that of a tiger. Scripted on the side were two words, 'Daniel Fenton'.

"That is… odd." Miss Awolowo said slowly and glanced over at Danny who shrank back as the rest of the students followed her gaze. "I imagine that the tree is confused because Danny is so much younger than any previews apprentice." She reasoned.

"Why is he here then?" Rolf said seriously. "When I had a vision when I was eleven they said I had to wait a year to be tested to come to Rowan. Why is he allowed here when he is only seven or eight?"

Murmurs of agreement went through some of the members of the students. "There are extenuating circumstances that made it necessary for him to come here early." Miss Awolowo said a note of warning in her voice. "And as to what those are, that is between Daniel, his sister, the Director, and Nigel, and I don't want to see any of you pestering or mistreating him for it or there will be consequences." Her soft features showed a momentary glare that made some of the other students flinch. "Remember that he went though the same tests that you went through. And his scores were some of the highest in the class." They all continued to look at Danny but there was no longer the open hostility to him being there. "Since we are all here I suppose we should continue with our tour." Miss Awolowo said and began to walk away with the students on her heels.

They passed a single story building that had smoke coming from a chimney in a small clearing as they went. "That is the Smithy." Miss Awolowo said as she pointed out the small building. "As Apprentices, you will not be taking Devices yet, but during the school year you might have an occasion to visit it."

"Devices?" Connor muttered looking at Max who just shrugged.

"She means tools. You know, like a radio or something." Jazz said thinking about when Danny had asked an agent the same thing. "Things that might not be mystic in nature but are still handy." Though the first example that had really come to mind for Jazz was the Fenton Ghost Portal.

"Speaking of classes." Rolf said loudly. "When do we get our class schedules? My parents insisted that I am to be enrolled in advanced math."

Danny snickered and even Jazz rolled her eyes. "How can someone be thinking about math on their first day at a magical academy?" Danny said and Lucia who had been close enough to hear nodded in agreement.

"Class assignments will be given tomorrow, Rolf." Miss Awolowo said. Danny suspected that even she wanted to roll her eyes at the comment.

The group went down a long path with several smaller dirt paths coming off of it. Both Danny and Jazz stopped at several of them as nostalgic feelings washed over them before jogging to catch up with the rest of the students.

After a while they came across a large enclosed area with several unsaddled horses running freely about. Danny had never been that interested in horses and had had several bad experiences with their more ghostly counterparts, but Jazz was practically gushing as she watched them galloping in the fields. There were several building nearby that Danny thought might be the stables, but what caught his attention was a high mossy wall that had a large heavy door set into the center of it. Danny could feel the same presents that had been at the Manse with the Configuring rooms. Jazz's eyes also seemed to linger on the heavy gate as she got a similar vive.

"Beyond that wall is the Sanctuary. You will be visiting it tomorrow. No time to stop now, please keep up." Miss Awolowo said not really slowing down. Danny and Jazz stared at the wall for several seconds feeling sad that they wouldn't be going through it sooner, but they sighed as there class was rounding a bend and ran to catch up with David, Connor, and Max.

They circled around near the ocean cliffs and went back towards the main grounds. "Would you look at that!" Connor said in amazement as they passed a large ship fixed to an old dock.

"That children, is the Kestrel. You will be hearing more about her tonight. Please keep moving." Miss Awolowo said as she kept waking. She waved to a man who was gathering drift wood on the beach before moving the class towards two of the larger buildings.

One of the building had a large clock tower in it. The other students jumped as the clock boomed the six o'clock chimes, but Danny had Jazz had long since gotten used to such a thing from their time in Clockwork's tower.

"These are our academic building were you will have most of your classes. We call them Maggie and Old Tom." Miss Awolowo said as the bells stopped. "Old Tom is our time keeps are well and will tell you need to be. And right now we are expected at the kitchen." She continued to wake and the students jogged after her.

Danny and Jazz were still walking along with Max, David and Connor when Connor said. "It's my first time out of Dublin, let alone in the states." Connor gave a small shrug. "I suppose the lot of you live in mansions back home."

David laughed. "Yah, my mansion has four wheels. My mom and I live in a trailer."

"Well ours had a UFO land on it." Jazz said with a smile. "We grew up at a lab."

"Fenton Works is better than Vlad's stupid mansion." Danny said in protest.

"A lab you say." Connor said with a grin. "That must be interesting." Danny nodded with a grin. "What about you Max, you live in a mansion?"

"No." Max said confused. "My dad and I live in a regular house. We're not rich." Max added seeming a little defensive.

"You got a computer?" Connor asked. Max nodded. "You got a car?"

"My dad does." Max said.

"You got a job?" Connor said as if he had won the argument.

"What? No, I'm only twelve." Max said in surprise.

"Congratulations Max, your rich." Connor said before running ahead to catch up with a group of girls.

"What do you think he meant about that whole, your rich stuff?" Max asked.

"You lived a comfortable life without having to work or fight for it." Danny said simply. "Sounds nice." Max looked shocked at Danny. Even David looked confused. "I didn't say that there was anything wrong with that. But to someone who did have to work as a child you would seem rich."

"That is a little too wise for someone your age." David said coughing into his sleeve. "But I think you're over thinking it. Connor probably didn't mean anything. He's kind of weird. He already tried to bet me over whether or not he could get Lucia to kiss him before classes start."

Max laughed. "Not a chance." Connor was trying to talk to said girl ahead of them but Lucia only ignored him.

They arrived back at the Manse where they had started the tour and Miss Awolowo led them down a flight of stairs down to a large underground dining hall that could easily seat two thousand people comfortably. They were standing near some double doors at the back when Miss Awolowo turned to them. "Now, children, I want to warn you that Mum and Bon are not your typical chefs." Miss Awolowo said sparking a wave of murmurs among the Apprentices. "They can be a bit startling at first glance, but I promise you will grow to love them."

As they got closer to the double doors the students could hear a woman's voice coming from inside. "Hurry Bob! Put that pot down! I think they're here! Oh I can practically taste them!" The voice said. Danny and Jazz were the only new students that we not frightened in the least. After the Lunch Lady's Ghost no chef could be considered bazaar to them.

"Hush yourself, Mum." A deep voice with a bit of a Russian accent rumbled from behind the doors. "I hear them too. You remember to behave yourself." It said warningly.

The other students froze as they heard a shrill giggle coming from behind the doors. Some of the students pushed back trying to get to be back of the group. Danny and Jazz thought that 'not your typical chefs', meant something completely different and were just wondering what these people made for dinner and hoped that it wasn't anything weird; like roaches or fried dog.

"Mum, Bob? It's Ndidi. Could you please come out and meet the new class." Miss Awolowo said knocking at the door.

"Oh, they're here! The darlings are here!" Shrieked the more female voice. The doors shot open and Miss Awolowo was knocked aside and fell to the ground. Out of the kitchen came a short gray skinned woman. She was hardly taller than Danny but she was just as wide as she was tall. She rushed out and grabbed Jesse who was at the front of the group in a massive hug. Jesse looked like he was going to faint from the horror of it as he paled. The woman's skinny face grinned showing several large pointed teeth like an alligators as she looked over the students.

"Oh Ndidi, you've outdone yourself!" She said in her cackling voice. "They're wonderful, and so plump!" She tucked the now fainted Jesse under one arm before reaching out with her free hand and pinching Cynthia's large arm. The red headed girl buried her face into Lucia's shoulder as Lucia tried to swat away the woman's hand. Danny started to laugh.

But then a familiar commanding voice called out through the hall. "Mum! Release that poor boy and stop pinching that girl's arm!"

The woman who they all realized by now was Mum immediately dropped Jesse and put her hands behind her back. "I was only welcoming the new children, Ms. Richter." Mum mumbled.

Danny smiled as he saw Ms. Richter approaching. "That was not a welcome. That was an ambush. Completely unacceptable from a reformed hag. Please apologize to the children and Ndidi." Ms. Richter said sternly.

The hag looked down at her feet. "I just got excited. I wouldn't really have eaten them, Ms. Richter." Several of the students went weak in the knees.

"I should hope not." Ms. Richter said. "You promised me that there would be no more incidents and I took you at your word. Now I won't ask again for your apology."

"Oh, I'm sorry! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry…" Mum cried before bolting back into the kitchen past Miss Awolowo who was just managing to get back up onto her feet.

"I told her to behave herself, Director!" The deep voice from before said from within the kitchen.

Miss Richter moved to the front of the group to where everyone could see her before smiling at introducing herself to the students. "Hello children, I am Ms. Richter and welcome to Rowan." She said and turned her head to Miss Awolowo. "Thank you for covering for me while I was away, Ndidi." Miss Awolowo nodded as she regained her composure after being knocked to the ground. "Now then, let's go meet Rowan's chefs shall we?" Ms. Richter said brightly as she walked through the swinging doors.

The students hesitantly moved forward so Danny and Jazz who weren't afraid in the slightest moved through the crowd with ease and got to the front next to Ms. Richter.

But once all the students got through the doors all of them froze. Sitting on a stool was a massive man. He was over ten feet tall with yellowy skin and was nearly bald with a lumpy head and a monocle that seemed a little out of place. He looked up at the group before driving a large butcher's knife into a cutting board before standing up and patting the wrinkles out of his apron.

The First Years screamed and started tried to climb over each other to get to the door. Some hide under cupboards and David ran into the larder before slamming the door behind him. "Children, it's alright! This is Bob. He's our head chef here at Rowan!" Ms. Richter shouted trying to calm down the students to no avail. But then one voice cut through the scream.

"Wow, you're really tall!" Danny shouted standing right in front of Bob who looked genuinely surprised. The other students paused and seemed to stare at the little boy.

"Danny!" Jazz said loudly. Most of the others thought that the girl was scared for her brother, but her next words surprised them even more. "You know it's rude to point out someone's appearance when you first meet them." She scolded him. "You're supposed to introduce yourself."

Danny dropped his head and blushed. "Sorry. I'm Danny. It's nice to meet you, Bob." Danny said holding out a hand. Bob smiled and reached out and shook it.

"The pleasure is all Bob's." He said.

Jazz smiled and ruffled her brother hair before introducing herself. "Hello Bob, I'm Jasmine Fenton, but everyone calls me Jazz. I'm Danny's older sister." She said bowing her head a little.

"Oh, you are the two that the agents spoke of." Bob said, a smile softening his features. "They said ten whole sentences. It is rare that any agent offers so much information outside of a mission debriefing. They were right. You two are very brave."

"Jazz says that it isn't bravery." Danny said rubbing his head as if he was trying to think. "She said that I just lack a sense of… self-pres… pres… what was the word?"

"Self-preservation." Jazz said chuckling and Bob gave a hearty laugh.

"Yah that." Danny said grinning and exposing his missing baby teeth.

The rest of the students had become silent at the display. Ms. Richter was smiling at the two siblings. "Thank you. Now as I was saying, children this is Bob our head chef."

"What is it?" Rolf said still frighten despite the fact that the eight year old was perfectly comfortable around the large man. "Is it dangerous?"

"First things first, young man," Ms. Richter said sternly. "'It' has a name and 'his' name is Bob. Second Bob is not dangerous. He is a consummate gentleman and the finest chef we have ever had here at Rowan."

"Your words flatter me, Director." Bob said as he tended to some stoves. "Hello students. My name is Bob. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. Welcome to Rowan." Bob said and bowed his large head to the students.

"Bob is an ogre. Yes I know what some of you have heard about ogre, but our Bob is a reformed ogre and has been with us for almost sixty years. He came to us himself, coming all the way from his native homeland in Siberia. He has been taking care of use ever since." Ms. Richter said before leaning over and giving Bob a light kiss on the cheek. Bob smiled appreciatively before looking to the children for questions.

Lucia raised a trembling hand. "Um… what does… what does Bob eat?" She seemed to be having trouble with her English do to her fear.

Bob opened his mouth wide showing a cavernous area with no teeth. Closing his mouth he chuckled lightly. "They are wary Director. That is good no?" Bob then turned to the group. "After I swore off… meat… I removed my teeth with pliers. Now Bob enjoys tomato soup and grilled cheese." Bob said.

Danny raised a hand and Bob nodded to him. "Did you pull out your teeth yourself or did a doctor man put you to sleep so that it wouldn't hurt?" Danny asked. "I heard that it really hurts to have your teeth pulled if you don't use the gas stuff that the teeth doctor has got."

Bob smiled. "Bob actually pulled them out himself, but ogres have very high pain thresholds. Do not worry, it did not hurt Bob. Though Bob does not suggest doing it."

As Bob finished Ms. Richter moved to a large cupboard in the back of the room and knocked loudly on it. "Mum, are you going to join us or are you going to sulk?"

There was a shriek coming from the cupboard and Mum's voice came from inside of it. "Go away! I'm not ever coming out! You hate me, I know you hate me!" She said sobbing.

Ms. Richter smiled apologetically at the students. "Now Mum, please don't be difficult. The children very much want to me you properly don't you children." Ms. Richter said soothingly and ignored the horrified faces of the First Year students. "Come now Mum, we are all very hungry, but we won't sit down to eat until after you join us. Dinner smells wonderful and we can get the sniffing ceremony done and out of the way."

Several students gulped at the words. "Well… I wouldn't want anyone to go hungry." Mum's voice said sounding more subdued. "You don't hate me… do you Director?"

"No Mum of course not." Ms. Richter said.

"And the darlings… do they find me… colorful?" A hopeful voice said from inside the cupboard. Jazz gave Danny a stern look as he tried to choke down a laugh.

"Yes Mum they find you colorful." Ms. Richter rolled her eyes and shook her head at the statement. "Now please come out and met them."

The cupboard opened and Mum squeezed herself out of it. She whipped tears out of her eyes and then looked at the students with a surprised smile. "Oh hello, are these the new students, Director. They look like such dears." Mum said.

"Mum, please don't act like you have never seen them before." Ms. Richter said rolling her eyes. The Director ignored the looks that Mum was giving her and turned back to the students. "Children, please return to the dining hall and form two lines. Mum, please come out with us. Bob, can you see that dinner is served right after the ceremony?" Bob nodded and everyone followed Ms. Richter out the swinging double doors. Danny and Jazz being the last out of the kitchen ended up at the front of the lines closest to Mum.

"Alright, take a deep breath and try to be still. When it's your turn, please hold out your arm so that Mum may sniff it." Ms. Richter said. There were more signs of horror.

"I thought that you had to pass a test of bravery to come here?" Jazz mumbled. "Mum and Bob aren't all that scary." Danny nodded his agreement.

"You two are insane." Cynthia said weakly.

An African girl that looked a lot like Miss Awolowo raised her hand. "Ms. Richter, is Mum planning to remove her teeth with pliers anytime soon?" She asked hopefully.

"No dear… Sarah is it? The sniffing ceremony ensures that such measures won't be necessary. Mum, please begin." Ms. Richter said calmly.

"Oh, we got ourselves a little one here, don't worry Mum is very gentle." Mum reached out and grabbed Danny's hand. Pulling it up to her nose and she sniffed all along Danny's arm. Danny giggled and tried to stop from squirming. "Uh, you smell just like ice-cream." Mum said smiling. "Done!" She shouted before moving on to Jazz.

Jazz felt an urge to break the hag's neck but didn't act on it. After a few seconds Mum threw the arm down shouting that she was done and Jazz whipped of the trail that was on her arm while Mum continued down the rows. Jazz and Danny went over to talk to Ms. Richter.

"Ms. Richter, can you really call Mum reformed if there is a ceremony like this that stops her from acting on her desires?" Jazz asked watching the other students squirm. "An alcoholic isn't cured just because you put him in a place without alcohol."

"Well, Mum really wants to live with us more than she wants to eat people. The probably is she just can't help herself once she gets excited." Ms. Richter said sadly. "But it's the thought that counts. And she agreed to this ceremony so that she could stay here with us, even though it means that she cannot eat the students." Ms. Richter said looking at the students. "So, how are you liking our campus so far?" Ms. Richter asked the siblings.

"It's very nice." Jazz said smiling but then she looked at the rest of the students. "I will admit that the other students are… not what I was expecting." She admitted.

"They're a little silly." Danny chuckled. "Being afraid of people like Mum and Bob."

"Well not everyone can be as brave as you, Danny." Ms. Richter said as some of the nearby students looked ashamed of themselves, but still afraid of the Hag that was moving rapidly towards them. "But don't be mistaken. All of these students have passed a test of bravery. Each of them shows great potential, just like you."

"You only say that because you've never seen Danny serious." Jazz mutter so that no one but Danny could hear her. Danny's chest puffed out a little with pride.

After Mum had gotten all the way through the line she turned to the group and did an elaborate bow. "It was lovely to meet you all, my darlings. Welcome to Rowan! Your dinner is served!"

Dinner was rather uneventful for the Fenton siblings, and after it was over the students carried lanterns and followed Ms. Richter out and across the grounds as the sun began to set. They went down a set of steps to the beach where a bonfire was waiting for them. Around the fire were several logs to seat the students. Ms. Richter motioned them to take a seat before she started to speak in a solemn voice. "Tonight is a night when we remember, a night when we share with the new class a bit of Rowan's history and their own." The whole speech sounded recited, as if she had said it hundreds of times and heard it when she was a young girl. "It has been centuries since our kind fled the Old Country and arrived on these shores. We landed on this very stretch of beach, borne here by the Kestrel."

Ms. Richter bent down and picked up a handful of sand. "It may surprise you to know that our world is still a very young world, and that mankind is a very new thing upon this earth. Indeed, others were here long before us. The greatest among them came to help shape this world, to watch its beauty and possibilities unfold." The sand in her hand began to bubble and melt. Danny pointed and muttered excitedly to Jazz as the melted sand shaped itself into an ornament of glass and began to hover above the fire. It reflected the light in brilliant patterns and Danny stared transfixed at the jewel while Ms. Richter talked.

"They delighted in the waters and the woods and the creatures that came to inhabit them. Eventually they departed, leaving the care of our planet to others. These care takers were lesser beings and we call them the Stewards. To mankind however, they were as gods and goddesses, great spirits of the elements that watched over the world when we were but infants. Alas there vigilantes failed." The glass ornament began to fall. Danny's eyes widened and before he knew what he was doing his hand rose up from his side.

Ms. Richter stopped her story in surprise when instead of falling into the fire and shattering, the ornament was suspended in the air by a different force. After a moment the ornament flew into the outstretched hand of the young Danny who looked glad that it was ok, but then extremely sheepish as all eyes fell on him. "Sorry." He said guiltily. "I didn't think. I'm sorry." Jazz's eyes scanned the group nervously as if she feared repercussions for her brother's use of mystics. "I know I'm not supposed to. You just surprised me." Danny said defensively.

Ms. Richter remembered how they said that people in their home town were superstitious and had feared them and tried to hurt them. If Danny had uncontrolled mystics that would explain it. "That is quite alright." Ms. Richter said. "You are quite a talented boy, Danny. Not many can use mystics so well at your age and without proper instruction. But please refrain from using them until after you are shown the proper safety in the classrooms." Some of the other students muttered jealously of the boy. "But back to the story. The Stewards vigilance failed, and others came to…" Danny and Jazz let out a sigh of relief and Danny looked down at the small glass ornament in his hand. With it so close he could now see that it was a glass globe. He couldn't help but to think of all the astronaut stories about looking at the earth from way up high; something fragile, something that had to be protected.

Jazz gave Danny's shoulder a slight squeeze. She had fear for a second that the years of hiding Danny's powers were for nothing. But Danny's powers were accepted as just another form of mystics. 'We can live with other humans without the fear of them finding out about him.' The thought was almost enough to bring tears to the older sister's eyes.

Ms. Richter told the rest of the story. Of the creatures from other worlds that corrupted some of the Stewards and of the heroes that were chosen by the remaining Stewards in order to fight against them. Of the victories and the rise of Solas, a school that once existed before Rowan, of its fall when a creature named Astaroth came to destroy it, and finally the fight between Elias Bram and Astaroth which ended in the destruction of both. Then she told them how the survivors had escaped the destruction on the Kestrel and came to America and rebuilt, making Rowan.

"And, now, you are here. We are here so many years after our allies secured us this haven and enabled our kind to continue." Ms Richter said smiling softly. "I am so pleased to have you among us. You have been called to Rowan, not to fight, but to learn, to develop that noble spark within you. As the Director and a fellow human being, I hope that you will do your best to kindle that spark within you. Much depends upon it."

Danny and Jazz were pretty touched by the story, but they couldn't help but to think about the Stewards. Like gods to the early men, masters of the elements. They thought of some of their friends in the ghost zone and the things that they could do.

But the other students looked like they were overwhelmed by the prospects of so much responsibility. Though David was only looking up at the stars and every once and a while throwing sideways glances at Max, Jazz and Danny.

"It is late and there will be much to do tomorrow. I will lead you back to the Manse where you can retire to your new rooms." The children picked up their lanterns and followed behind Ms Richter as they tracked back to Manse.

When Danny got back to his room he walked slowly through the ice palace and to the two doors at the end of the hall. Opening the one on the left to found that it was a room full of different blades, spears and claws, an armory like the ones he had seen at Aragon. The one on the right had beakers, solid state chemicals and wires with welding equipment. Danny closed that door to and was starting to wonder where he was supposed to sleep when he saw the spiral staircase that led to what he could only believe was a clock tower.

Looking up Danny guessed that I had to have a least three hundred steps. Using a bit of his ghost energy he began to flout upwards and was soon thirty stories up. Reaching the top of the stairs he found a trap door that lead to a smaller circular room where several bells of different sizes made of ice that were hanging from the ceiling.

The room had a normal looking wooden work desk and wooden cabinets and the duffle bags filled with cloths that the agents smuggled out of Fenton Works. But there still was no bed. Instead in the middle of the room there was a pitch black coffin with green decorations. Danny was confused until he got a closer look. The coffin had no top to it, and inside it was a blanket in two pillows. "I… why can't I just have a bed." Danny complained.

Danny gave a small sigh and pulled out some pajamas. Lying down in the coffin he found that it was surprisingly comfortable. "This goes under thing I won't tell Jazz." He yawned before going to sleep.


	6. Chapter 6

I own nothing, not the characters, the space where this story exists, or even the eyes that you are using to read it. This is for entertainment proposes only, no money involved.

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><p>Danny woke up to the sounds of a hundred bells going off in a melody all round him. With the bells so close it felt like the sound was going through him. Rising up out of the coffin he stretched and yawned loudly. Blinking he turned his head from side to side trying to remember were in the ghost zone he was. But he quickly realized that he was not at Clockwork's tower.<p>

Hovering out of the bed he floated over to his closet, letting his pajamas fall through him to the floor. He grabbed a towel and then passed through the floor and went down to the bright green front door out of his massive room. His feet finally touched the ground and he unlocked the door to go take a shower.

As Danny went into the hall he got some looks from the other students who were also heading to the showers. Danny suddenly felt very self-conscious about himself and used the towel to cover as much of himself as possible and tried his best not to give into the temptation of turning invisible.

The other boys tried not to stare but they couldn't help throwing sideways glances at the eight year old boy. Danny's body had been very well protected by the jumpsuit he got from his parents and his body didn't have a scratch on it from any of his enemy. But the three years of constant fight or training did have an effect on his muscles, and it was disconcerting for them to see the small boy having a six pack. But his towel covered enough of his back for them not to see the three narrow columns of wide needle marks from the nerve uplinks of the Fenton Battle Suit that never went away after his fight with Pariahs Dark. The marks went half way up his back and were the reason he never let Jazz see his bare upper body. Jazz had never forgiven herself from not being strong enough to stand with Danny when he went to fight Pariahs.

But all of the boys seemed to forget about Danny when they entered the bathroom, room 301. Max and Connor were standing there in the middle of a large space filled with cedar lockers, slatted benches, and tropical plants. Danny could hear classical music over the sound of the large marble fountain that was set into the wall. Across the room were three archways with signs that said toilets, showers, and spa.

"Wow!" shouted a boy that Danny was pretty sure was named Omar. "Did you guys configure this?"

"Someone had to." Connor said mockingly before heading for the spa.

Danny just wanted to get his business over with and get out before people saw his back. Going to the showers he moved into one of the stalls and closed the curtain behind him. Sighing he removed his towel and looked at the wall under the foist head. But instead of normal knobs it had a series of six levers.

Danny didn't know what to do so he just pulled down on the one on the far left. Ice cold water came streaming out and Danny let out a sigh of pleasure, his body loving the cold. Looking around though he realized that he didn't have any shampoo. Luckily one of the other who had been experimenting shouted that it was the second from the right.

Danny could hear loud whoops of laughter coming from the other stalls but he just didn't want to be around when everyone was done. Washing his hair and body with some soap that came out of the third from the right Danny turned off the shower and started drying himself off.

But as he was getting out he hurried a loud. "Ahem." Danny looked to see a three foot tall man in a blue suit. He was completely bald but still managed to look like a leprechaun. He smelled so strongly of cheap cologne that Danny was starting to feel sick. "Enjoying yourselves, are you? Fun business making a mess of Jimmy's bathroom, uh?" The man said angrily taking a step towards the students.

"Well, what's the matter? Mum got your tongues? Old enough to shave, but too young to answer for yourselves?" He shoot a glare at Max and Omar who were both sporting beards made out of shaving cream and looks of complete shock as they move away from the man.

"Sir we didn't mean anything…" Connor started.

"Silence!" The short man shouted. Danny rolled his eyes as the others coward in fear.

"Come on, stop cowering. He's even less scary than Mum." Danny said in disgust. "Ms. Richter said you passed some test of courage. I've seen three year olds that are braver than you." They all looked at Danny with wide eyes. The boy had been so shy and quiet a moment ago. But Danny was always more comfortable with none human creatures around. "So can we get the intimidation run over with, and can you just tell us who you are and what you want?" Even the small man was stunned into silence.

Danny was just about to leave them with the small man and ignore any shouts after him when Nigel's head shoot around the corner. "Hurry up boys, Ms. Richter is already in the orientation room and… Jimmy, how are you?"

"Oh you just had to come and spoil my fun. I was going to get these tadpoles to mop this place for a month." Jimmy said rolling his eyes.

Nigel chuckled and walked into the bathroom. Going to the last stall he lifted the head off of a statue of a fat Buddha and dropped a coin inside of it. "Sorry Jimmy. Next time I will leave them to you."

"Oh it's ok. Need to get moving if we're going to spiff them up for the morning session. Do you want I give you a zing of the good stuff, Nigel?" Jimmy said rubbing his hands together.

Nigel smiled and said. "No Jimmy, no thank you. I will tell the Director that the boys are… um… just making your acquaintance." Nigel said and started to leave before sticking his head back in. "Boys, make sure you bring Jimmy a present later. Remember, it's the thought that counts."

"Alright see you!" Jimmy called after him as he left. "So who are the lucky lads that are going to be spiffed up Jimmy style? Come on I can't get to all of you." Danny slipped out well everyone's attention was still on Jimmy.

Getting back to his room he flew up to the bell tower and grabbed a shirt and pants. He gladly pulled over the loose fitting shirt that hid the shape his body was in before returning to the dorms always and finding his way to the auditorium.

"Good morning children. I see most of you are already here so let's get started." Ms. Richter said from the front of the auditorium as Danny entered. Danny looked around and saw Jazz sitting with David and Cynthia. Danny joined them without saying a word. "Today you will be visit the…" Ms. Richter paused and a small smile passed over her face as she looked towards the back of the auditorium.

The students turned their heads to see what she was looking at before several of them broke out laughing. Five boys including Max, Connor and Rolf filed in with heavily gelled up hair that was parted in an old fashioned way. Each of them wore a look of absolute misery.

Danny's hands went up and covered his nose as they came closer. Danny followed Jazz and Cynthia's lead in moving several seats farther away from the other boys. "How nice of you to join us." Ms. Richter said pulling out a handkerchief and waving it in front of her face to disperse the smell. Several of the girls in the room laughed. David sat staring as if in a daze not being able to comprehend what he was seeing in front of him. "As I was about to tell your class mates today is a very special day. Today will be your first time entering the Sanctuary. There you will be paired with a good friend for the next six years, perhaps even longer."

Ms. Richter paused and breathed deeply into her handkerchief before continuing. "Yes well. After this morning's visit to the Sanctuary, you will receive your class schedules and meet with you… class advisers who will… dear lord it is simply overpowering." Ms. Richter said sparking a wave of laughter from the students. "Boys I assume that Jimmy is responsible for your… grooming." Ms. Richter waved her hand at them and they nodded. "Jimmy has been with us for a long time and he means well… but the sad truth is that his sense of smell has left him. So in the future I implore you to turn down his offers for grooming. He will try to pressure you but you must remain strong for all of our sakes."

The victims nodded. "Good, now how about we continue this conversation outside." Ms. Richter said and the entire group ran out of the auditorium followed by the five miserable boys.

There was a gentle breeze outside that took away a large quantity of the smell. "That's better." Ms. Richter said. "Now as I was saying, the Sanctuary is a very special place at Rowan, there is nothing more important on this entire campus. You see children we champion not lonely our fellow man, but many other creatures and spirits that inhabit this world. Not all mystical creatures are allied with the enemy. Those that wish can seek shelter here at Rowan. You have already met some of them. Unfortunately mean of these creatures are very young or venerable and require your care. Today, you will be paired with one of them." Danny's eyes widened and a smile crept across his face. Living at a lab he wasn't allowed to have a pet growing up. Even the ghost dog Cujo wasn't really his pet but a wild animal.

"This is a great honor being bestowed upon you." Ms. Richter said sternly. "Some of these creatures are exceedingly rare. Some are even the last of their kind. There is no greater shame than being force to relinquish one's charge." Ms. Richter then turned and led the group through the woods to the Sanctuary. They were at the entrance when Ms Richter turned to them again. "I know you are nervous, children, after all there are so many new things. Take a deep breath and enjoy this next part. For many students the Sanctuary is there favorite place. Many form lifelong bonds with their charges. Just be yourselves and trust your charges instincts." The heave door creaked open. Through the door Danny saw a narrow path that was closely bordered by low trees and bushes.

Danny and Jazz both hurried forward excitedly feeling the familiar touch of the space distorting around them. After about thirty yards the students could feel a light drizzle coming from above them. Danny and Jazz both realized that they were in a completely different place but the other students began to whisper about how it hadn't been raining before they entered.

The siblings were more interested in the sight ahead of them. Patches of dense forests and snowcapped hills as well as large pools and rock formations that were all scattered at irregular intervals. There was a large herd of cows grazing in a distant field. Directly in front of them was a long low building right next to a lagoon that was bordered by a strip of beach with tropical palms.

Suddenly an enormous bird dove down out of the sky and grabbed one of the cows in its talons. With a loud screech the bird carried the cow away towards some distant sand dunes. "Good to see that Hector is eating again." Ms. Richter said cheerfully. "He hasn't touched anything in weeks!"

"I guess you let them hunt in the way they would in their natural habitat." Jazz said thoughtfully. "Doing so is a natural stimulus that would help their mental and physical health more than an artificial simulated diet and exercise."

"Exactly." Ms Richter said proudly. "We do everything we can to help with the charges' happiness and well being." A number of kids retreated back towards the leafy tunnel until the Director beckoned them back out. "Don't worry about any Sanctuary inhabitants mistaking you for food." She assured them. "Nothing here normally preys upon humans, and they are all very well fed."

Rolf scoffed loudly earning himself a warning glance from Ms Richter.

"Hey, where's the ocean?" Connor said looking out east to where the ocean should have been. There were only large sand dunes for miles until they stopped at a rock wall that extended to the horizon.

Ms Richter smiled. "As Connor has noticed, our Sanctuary is a very different place from the world back through that tunnel. Like many things here at Rowan, the Sanctuary has its own space, space that is 'borrowed' from other places in the world. This provides our guests with a safe haven and a variety of habitats that are similar to their homes. The only way in or out of this Sanctuary is through this tunnel. Remember, Old Magic can be raw and unpredictable, so it is important not to wander too far." Jazz raised her hand. "Yes Jazz."

"If this space is borrowed from other places in the world, then what is in the places where it borrowed from? Does space bend around it to close the hole or was something there as a replacement?" Jazz asked.

Ms. Richter smiled. "That is a very good question. Yes space does bend around the barrowed areas so that you could walk right over it without noticing. But they are so small and so spread out that no one ever notices." Ms. Richter answered Jazz's question.

"But doesn't that mean if you could unbalance the force that is keeping it here then the land would return to its previous location?" Jazz continued. "There by allowing you to move across the world to the location."

Several students looked surprised at Jazz. "Yes that is the case, though it would take a lot to undo Old Magic and it would be a one way trip." Ms. Richter said a little surprised. "You are well informed about the workings of borrowed space."

"Our parents were scientists in a field relating to it." Jazz said with a shrug.

"Then you should have no problems in science class when you get to your sixth year with us." The Director said and looked at her watch. "I think Nolan's ready for us."

A tall and skinny tanned man walked out of the building near the lagoon and walked towards them. He had a small piglet in his arms that seemed to be struggling to get lose. He laughed and placed it on the ground and it dashed towards the group and straight up to Max who laughed and picking it up. "Hello Lucy." He said to the pig. "It's good to see you."

Lucy squirmed in his arms so that it could sniff at his cheek. Max laughed and turned towards the others.

"Ah, I had almost forgotten that Max has met Lucy before!" Ms. Richter called out over the class. "Class, come and meet Lucy. She's been Nigel Bristow's charge since he was an Apprentice some thirty years ago."

"This is more like it." Cynthia sighed as she scratched Lucy behind the ears.

"Hello, Lucy." Omar cooed and patted her belly.

"There's a good girl." Connor added shaking her foot.

"Can she fly?" Danny asked wondering about mystical flying pigs. One of the things he had searched high and low for in the Ghost Zone.

Lucy tossed around in Max's arms trying to look at each of the students at once but it was all too much for her. With a grunt of shock she released a burst of gas. Lucy looked a bit hurt as the children fled with shrieks of laughter. She buried her head in Max's armpit to sulk.

"Now, now, you've hurt her feelings." The man said with a light chuckle. His voice was rather calm and mellow, as if he was a kindergarten teacher. He had dark hair and blue eyes with a bit of age showing around his face in the form of crow's-feet. His clothes looked worn down and he had a thick leather apron and gloves that had several deep gashes and puncture marks in them.

"Hey students, are you all ready to make a friend for life?" He asked with a small wave. He took Lucy from Max, He whispered something into her ear and placed her on the ground. Lucy went back towards the lagoon.

"Children, this is Mr. Nolan, Head Grounds Keeper at Rowan." Ms. Richter introduced the newcomer.

"Just Nolan is fine with me." He said with a wink. Then waved everyone to follow him to the building. "Let's all head over to the Warming Lodge. We got some amazing creatures that are just dying to meet you."

Gathering the children around the porch, Nolan motioned for them to quiet. Pulling a small silver bell out of a grove he ringed it three times. The students could hear a large mass moving around inside the lodge. "Kids, I would like you to meet YaYa, she looks after all the animals in the Sanctuary. She's the Great Matriarch of Rowan and has been here since it was established." The children stepped back as the head of a jet black lioness came out of the Warming Lodge. She was bigger than a rhino and had a single broken ivory horn on top her head. Her black fur gave of a faint white shimmer and Danny could sense that there was some power similar to that of a ghost's within her. She came out onto the porch before folding her legs and lying down in front of the students. Her eyes were a milky white and she breathed slowly as if great age was weighing her down. Lucy came out the door and wedged herself underneath YaYa's chin.

"She's beautiful Mr. Nolan." Said a girl at the front of the group. "What is she?"

"I'm sure that she would prefer to answer that herself." Mr. Nolan said grinning.

The massive head lifted somewhat. Her voice sounded like several women speaking at once. "Thank you for your kindness. I am a Ki-rin. Greetings and welcome to Rowan." She said softly.

"YaYa is very old. 700 years is a long life, even for one of her kind." Nolan said. "Today we make sure that YaYa can spend her days resting and tending to the injured. As the Great Matriarch of Rowan however she is the one you will have to answer to, if she hears you are sharking your tasks."

"Do not frighten them Nolan, I am sure the charges will be in very good hands." YaYa's soft voices sang. "Lucy here already speaks very highly of them." The cloudy eyes passed over the group. They stared longest at David, Jazz and they halted for several seconds on Max. But when the sightless eyes passed over Danny they widened. She could sense him the same way that he could sense her.

"YaYa." Nolan said snapping her out of her trance. "With your permission, we would like to introduce your charges to the class."

YaYa nodded before tearing her blind eyes away from Danny. "Yes… but not Kurama. He is still being troublesome and is far too much for an apprentice to handle right now." The voices of the Ki-rin sounded like she was going to cry. "If nothing changes… we might have to let him go." Then she shook her head. "But the rest of them are very excited to meet the students… with the exception of Tweedy."

Danny was bouncing around with excitement. The students were taken outside and positioned in rows as YaYa lay on a large blanket in front of them all. "Danny!" Ms. Richter said coming up to him. "Danny, I believe that it might be for the best if you do not have a charge just yet." Danny's face fell. "You are still young and many of these creatures many need constant care and you might be behind in your classes since you are younger than the rest of the class. You can still come and volunteer your time here, but I don't think you should have a charge that you are responsible for until you settle in."

Danny tried to argue but Ms. Richter just shook her head. Danny eventually gave up and chugged along behind her as she went and sat down by himself far behind Ms. Richter and YaYa.

Soon, out of the trees came several adults leading creatures of all shapes and sizes. The creature moved between the students comparing them and looking for one that they liked. After a few minutes passed most of the students and been chosen by a creature.

Danny was fuming with jealousy as Jazz sat on the ground with a small horse's head in her lap. The raven winged Pegasus seemed completely content as she stroked its mane.

But just before the last of the students were picked a small shiver went up Danny's spine. Fiery golden wisps could be seen through the trees were the rest of the creatures had come from. "It's Kurama!" A talking rabbit by the name of Tweedy screamed in panic. Most of the charges began to run and some dragged their students along with them. The adult care takers were trying to position themselves between the golden light and the students.

Out of the forest bounded a giant fox the size of a large lion. It had bright orange fur and amber eyes that seemed to glow even in the light of day. It gave a sharp cry that reverberated and echoed even in the clearing. Golden flames were fluttering off of the creature's two tails as it threw its head from side to side.

Finally it spotted Danny. It leaped over to him to the horror of the other students. Ms. Richter was up and going to run to Danny's aid, but YaYa positioned herself between them. "Do not worry. The boy is quite alright." She said with certainty.

The fox circled around Danny. Both the boy and the fox had puzzled expressions as if they didn't know what to expect. Danny noticed how the fire didn't burn any of the grass. In fact, wherever the creature's feet landed the grass seemed to grow faster before his eyes.

The creature stopped circling Danny and walked straight up to him. The fire blazed outwards over Danny's body. Danny could hardly hear the shouts of panic coming from the on looks. The fire was cool against Danny's skin but it still felt ferrous and proud. Danny looked into the expectant amber eyes and lifted up his right hand. Sparks of emerald green and sapphire blue flames danced around Danny's fingers.

Kurama bent his head forward and sniffed in Danny's flames before licking the hand. Then as if satisfied the flames died down and the fox began to shrink until it was the size of a kitten. Kurama then jumped into Danny's arms and made himself comfortable.

"It looks like Kurama has chosen you." Danny nearly jumped as he realized that YaYa was standing over him. "Kurama is not usually this quick to trust. He must sense the same things about you that I do." YaYa said bending down to eye level with Danny. Danny could feel the hot breath of the Ki-rin on his face. "You really are a special one." She said in a whisper before lifting herself up and returning to the blankets.

"Danny, are you alright?" Ms. Richter said as she came up to the boy.

"I'm fine. Kurama was just curious, that's all." Danny said rubbing the fox behind the ear. "What is Kurama anyways? He doesn't have a name tag like the others."

Ms. Richter looked at the boy in surprise. Danny was completely unafraid of Kurama. "Kurama is a Yoko, or Spirit Fox." Ms. Richter finally said. She looked at the Yoko in the boys arms and sighed. "I guess you will be having a charge after all. Though don't hesitate to ask Mr. Nolan for help. A Yoko is a very unpredictable creature, especially baby ones like Kurama." Danny start jumping up and down with the fox hugged to his chest as Kurama let out a cooing sound. "Why don't you go and sit with the rest of the students will you wait to sign the care takers agreement."

Danny ran off to join his sister and show her the baby Yoko. "Yes Danny I can see him." Jazz said rolling her eyes as Danny gushed over the baby Yoko.

"Why aren't you more concerned about what that thing could do to your brother?" Connor asked. He and a girl faun that had picked him were staring nervously at the little fox that had only moments ago been the size of a lion.

"Don't worry. Danny's fine." Jazz said waving off the boy's concerns.

"Well he sure is an interesting one, I'll give him that." The students looked around to see Nolan standing behind them. "Hi y'all, I just that I would meet the young apprentice that got our little forest fire under control." He said squatting down to look at Danny.

"Hello, I'm Danny." Danny said grinning.

"Hi there Danny. I'm glad our little Kurama has taken a fancy to you. We weren't sure what we were going to do with him." Nolan said looking down at the little fox. "I sure hope that you don't have too hard a time with him."

"I'm not worried. I can asked for help if I need it, right?" Danny said pulling the fox up to his cheek.

"Well you can say that, but I don't know how much help we could be to you. Kurama never let anyone near him. Well, except for YaYa." Nolan said and reached out a hand to pet the baby Yoko. Kurama hissed and bared his teeth as golden flames warded Nolan's hand away. "See what I mean? You sure do have a way with animals."

"Oh this is nothing. When Danny was five he left the house at night and ran all the way to the zoo and snuck into the gorilla exhibit so that he could read his favorite picture book to a six hundred pound gorilla." Jazz laughed. "The zoo keeps were so embarrassed because they had always thought that the gorilla was a boy until Danny asked why…"

"Jazz." Danny shouted mortified about her sharing his embarrassing childhood stories. The others laughed at his expense.

"Seriously, is there anything that scares him?" Connor deadpanned. Jazz scratched her chin as if deep in thought.

'There is one thing he is afraid of...' She thought sadly looking over at him as he was playing with the little fox. "No… not that I can think of." She said not looking Connor in the eyes.

After all the students were picked Ms. Richter called them all up one at a time to sign a pledge that they would take care of their charges. Afterwards they were all given booklets about their charges and then let use to explore the Sanctuary. They hadn't had a booklet prepared for Kurama so Danny was told to come back the next day to get one.

Kurama leapt out of Danny's arms and ran for some wooded areas near the tunnel. Danny laughed and chased after him while Jazz went with her charge, the Pegasus Diana, down to the lagoon to sit on the beach.

Kurama played a game of hide and seek with Danny. Neither seemed to care about the rain and they played tirelessly. But since Yoko gave of an energy that was very similar to that of a ghost, Danny found it each time no matter what bush or tree he hid in. "Got you!" Danny shouted as he came around a tree and startled the baby Yoko who gave a squeal of delight before taking to the sky. Danny was surprised to see that the little guy could fly. The golden flames were coming out of its paws and it stood in the air thirty feet up as if daring Danny to follow.

Danny looked around himself to see that no one was watching before turning invisible and jumping up after the fox. Danny found that Kurama could still see Danny even when he was invisible just like any ghost would have been able to. Danny chased the little fox through the skies until he finally caught him. Danny squealed when the baby Yoko turned the tables on him and began to climb all over Danny's body tickling him. "I give, I give." Danny laughed.

Kurama stopped and sniffed the air. Then he dived into a tree near the entrance. Danny wondering what he was doing followed after him. Entering the top branches of the tree Danny found Kurama looking down at Max with his charge, the Lymrill Nick, lying on top of him. Kurama must have smelled the gel that Jimmy had put in Max's hair and came over to see what it was.

But Max sat up straighter in the tree when he started to hear voices below them. "What's the latest news on Lees?" Danny could hear Ms. Richter's voice saying.

"We know he made it to the airport." Responded Nigel's voice. "It appears he simply never landed. Isabella insists he never got off the plane at Logan."

"What of the others?" The Director asked in an urgent voice.

"All signs say that they're gone, Director." It was the voice of a younger woman. One that Danny didn't recognize. "Disappeared shortly after they triggered their letters. They've all been reported missing within their communities."

"Exactly how many children are missing, Ndidi?" Richter asked. Danny gave a sharp intake of breath. Max's head shot up and he saw Danny perched above him and motioned to stay quiet.

"Mickey Lees, who passed the tests two weeks ago, and seventeen Potentials who haven't yet taken them." Miss Awolowo said. "The last Potential disappeared three days ago in Lima."

"And how many paintings have been stolen, Hazel?" Ms Richter asked.

"Fifty-two." The young woman said. "But the thefts seem to be somewhat random. We can't conclusively say that the Enemy is involved."

"Joseph, do we have any reason to suspect internal treachery? How was Isabella's last performance review?" Ms. Richter asked.

"Hmmm, always a possibility." Said an elderly voice. "But I don't think so, Gabrielle. Isabella's never been our best, but you know as well as I do that she's trustworthy."

"What about the enemy agents that the Fenton siblings captured?" Ms. Richter said seriously. Max's eyes widened and he looked up at Danny. "Did they have any useful information that might help us find the children?"

"As of yet, no. They were expendables. Only one of them even knew that they were asking the Potentials about their visions." The old man replied. "We're going to keep trying, but I doubt they know anything useful."

"Nigel, do you believe that McDaniels has shared everything with you? Everything about that woman at his house, and everything about Varga?" Ms. Richter asked. Now it was Danny's turn to look at Max.

"Yes, I do believe he did." Nigel said.

"Hmmm. I will still need to interview him. However, I do believe that you and Ndidi may be right about him. David Menlo, too, as well as Danny and Jazz Fenton. What this means is anybody's guess. But these missing children require more than just guesswork and must be our number one priority. Assume nothing about the children or the paintings. I will expect more information by tomorrow morning."

Max was watching the group below and Danny took the time to disappear taking Kurama with him. "Looks like something's up Kurama." Danny said as the Yoko cooed in agreement. "We should tell Jazz. She'll know what to do."


	7. Chapter 7

I own nothing, not the characters, the space where this story exists, or even the eyes that you are using to read it. This is for entertainment proposes only, no money involved.

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><p>When Danny told Jazz about the conversation that he overheard she had a plan. It just wasn't one that Danny liked. "We'll study up on visions and the like later. That might give us a clue what the missing potentials are for. I'd also like to check to see how they find potentials in the first place."<p>

Research had never been Danny's strong point. But it was something that would have to wait for a later data anyways. All the First Years were called to go back to the Manse after the rain started to pick up. So after saying goodbye to Kurama, Danny ran along with the rest of the kids through the tunnel and back to the Manse.

When they got there they were divided not five sections. Danny and Jazz ended up in the same section as Max, David, Lucia, Cynthia, Connor and several others. They had all gathered together in the Bacon Library were most of the children gathered around the fire to get the cold of the rain out of them. Danny was the only one who didn't not minding the cold. It wasn't like he could get sick anyways. He hadn't been sick in three years.

The door to the library opened and a young woman and an old man came in. The man had a narrow sunken face with thick glasses. He ran one hand through his white beard as he served the students in the room. The woman looked like she was in her early to mid twenties with short brown hair. She had a serious air about her and wore small rectangular glasses. She frowned with concentration as she looked through a stack of papers.

"Alright kids, gather round!" The man said loudly. Danny recognized his voice as one of the ones that he heard talking to Ms. Richter under the tree. The students groaned before reluctantly moving away from the fire. David coughed heavily as he moved. "Are you David?" the man asked looking at him. David nodded. "Maybe you should stay near the fire." The man said gently before turning to the group.

"Hello students. I'm Joseph Vincenti and this is Hazel Boon. Among the faculty, I'm the Department Chair of Devices and Miss Boon is a Junior Instructor of Mystics." He gestured to the woman standing next to him with the folders. "As your class advisors we're here to look after you, to make sure you're progressing as you should be. We'll be your advisors until you begin to specialize at the end of your third year when you get an advisor within your specialty. Miss Boon?"

Miss Boon looked up and Danny was surprised to see that her eyes were two different colors, one blue the other brown. She looked around the class but her gaze seemed to linger on Max the longest. "Hello there. I feel very privileged to be assigned as your class adviser, you're my first class. The Recruiters have raved about you and as such I expect great things. Great things require real work however, so without further ado, allow me to hand out your course schedules." She finished her speech and went around handing out laminated sheets of paper.

Danny heard gasps and 'oh no's from the other students. Looking down at his sheet of paper he couldn't understand what the problem was. Neither could Jazz, who just shrugged when he asked her. But eventually Cynthia raised her hand. "Am I reading this right? It says my day starts at 6:30 in the morning and that I am taking almost ten classes in addition to taking care of my charge."

"That is correct." Replied Miss Boon. "Rowan has a challenging curriculum and certain things like physical training, languages and mystics must be done each day."

Danny and Jazz then realized that neither of them had gone to school in two years and that the regimental standers set down by Pandora might have been extreme. They listened for the most part as the other students asked about things like room locations, grades, and class awards, thing that they hadn't had to deal with when being taught by Clockwork and the Ghost Writer. They felt like spoiled rich kids listening to the others' questions.

"When do we have to be in our rooms by?" A boy asked.

"Rowan does not have a mandatory curfew." Miss Boon said. Danny's head shoot up.

"Oh no you don't Danny. You're still a child and I want you to be in bed by nine just like back home." Jazz said sternly drawing giggles from their classmates. Danny sulked back down muttering.

After everyone ran out of questions they were told that they could do whatever they wanted until dinner. Danny wondered back to his room to put the schedule away. He looked across at the armory down in his giant room and decided that he could use some practice.

For the rest of the evening he swung around a spear doing tricks and flourishes so that they would become second nature. Danny's mind started to wonder and he found himself thinking about the ghosts back in the Ghost Zone. The ones that helped to raise him and who he owed so much. For the first time in his short life, Danny Fenton was home sick.

Later at dinner everyone was goofing around or complaining about the work load when Jazz noticed her brother was unusually quiet. "What's wrong Danny?" She asked him.

"I miss Grandpa and the others." Danny said sadly. Then noticing the look on his sister's face he straightened up and smiled. "Don't worry I'll be ok. I just have to remember them harder, that's all." He said confidently trying to stop his sister from worrying about him. They had decided together to go to Rowan, he wasn't going to break down before classes even started.

"I bet that all the class awards are going to go to the boys this year!" Jesse said loudly standing so that everyone would see him.

There were shouts of protest from the girls and Danny laughing. "No Jazz is going to get them all!" Danny shouted causing Jazz to blush and some of the others to chuckle. The moment passed and Danny laughed with the rest of them.

Later that night Danny sat up in the coffin he had instead of a bed and thought about the ghosts back home. Lifting one hand he called on his ghostly power and his hand glowed bright blue. Slowly he formed a life sized replica of Kurama's childish form out of ice. He hugged it close like a teddy as he slowly went to sleep.

After what had happened the preview morning Danny decided that he wasn't going to take a morning shower. He didn't know how long he could keep the marks on his back a secret, but he was going to try to hid them as long as possible. So he was going to take his showers in the evening when no one was around. Heck he would probably take them will completely invisible and just let people talk about the shower head that just suddenly turns on and water that rolls down a figure that was not even there. As long as the name Danny Fenton was not mentioned, he didn't care.

After getting in some morning practice with a double-headed spear he changed and decided to walk around until breakfast. As Danny exited his room and walked down the hall he could see students moving into the other rooms that we in the half of the hall that belonged to the second years. They were all lifting suitcases into their respective rooms and comparing class schedules and talking about their summers.

All of this stopped as they got a look at Danny. "Wow, a mini tadpole!" One boy shouted. Danny just walked by them as they shouted and laughed. They started to throw wadded up pieces of paper, packing tap, and cardboard at Danny. But Danny just moved through not bothering to dodge it or use his powers to stop or get away from it. The light impact of a paper ball was nothing compared to the rocks that had been thrown at him before.

Before he was half way through the hall the second years stopped throwing things and just stared at him. Danny was still holding his head with dignity and acting as if they were beneath his notice. Murmurs of disappointment went through the hall as the second years returned to what they had been doing before.

After getting some breakfast from Bob and talking to Jazz who was planning to spend the day in the library, Danny went outside and headed straight for the Sanctuary so that he could meet with Nolan and learn more about Kurama.

As Danny left the wooded tunnel into the Sanctuary he looked down to see several older students down on the beached area around the lagoon that was in front of the warming lodge. They were all watching from a safe distance as Nolan tried to entice an enlarged Kurama using what looked like an ear of corn. Kurama was glaring at the man and large golden flames poured out of his feet causing the portion of the sandy beach that was under his feet to grow wildflowers.

Danny grinned and ran straight for Yoko. "Kurama!" Danny shouted. Murmurs of surprise came from the older students as Kurama's head shoot up and he shank down to the size of a kitten again and flew over to Danny. "How are you doing, Kurama?" Danny asked the little fox as he scratched him under the chin. Kurama cooed appreciatively.

"Well hello there Danny. It's a good thing you showed up." Nolan said walking over to Danny. Despite the fact that he had been getting growled at by a fox the size of a lion he still sounded calm and surreal. "I was just trying to get Kurama here to take his medicine." Nolan said holding up a stock of red and black corn.

"Isn't that corn?" Danny said confused.

Nolan laughed. "Well, Kurama wouldn't take the pills or let us give him shots so this was the best we could do." Nolan said handing the corn to Danny. "Despite how Yoko's look they are actually herbivores. You know what that means?"

"Yah, he only eats plants, right?" Danny asked as he held the stock of corn to Kurama who sniffed it once before biting into it will Danny held it for him like it was a baby bottle.

"Exactly. His diet will mostly consist of berries and grains with a few fruits. He loves apple and we have had our hands full these last few months since he arrived trying to stop him from getting into the class trees. Come on, I'll show you were you're going to get the food for him." Nolan said as he gilded Danny back towards the Warming Lodge.

"Now a baby like Kurama here will have to be feed three times a day." Nolan said as they entered the Warming Lodge. People threw glances at Danny as he passed with the baby Yoko. "That means you will have to come every morning before classes during your afternoon break and after you're classes are over to feed the little rascal. If you can't come one day for some reason than let us know and we will try to work something out. But you mustn't ask one of the other students to do it for you. Kurama is a little… dangerous… when upset."

"You're not dangerous are you Kurama?" Danny said smiling down at the baby fox who had managed to eat off all the cornels from the corn.

"Well, he might not be to you." Nolan chuckled as the Yoko yawned. "But even baby Yokos are powerful and unpredictable creatures. Those flames might not hurt you or the environment, but there are several other charges and students have gotten small burns for them. And even a baby like him can become as big as a grizzly bear and cause a lot of damage. That along with his ability to fly makes him a handful."

"He's just misunderstood." Danny said confidently.

"That is usually the case with Yoko's." Danny nearly jumped as he realized that YaYa was right behind them. "They are spirits of nature whose very presence helps plants to grow healthy and strong." She said in her many voices. "They often found human settlements that where going to die to famine and helped their crops to grow healthy even during times of draught. But when the harvest time came and the Yoko would take a small portion of the food to keep itself going after the energy it would have used to save the peoples crops… they were labeled as thieves and driven out of many lands, sometimes they would be killed by the very people whose lives they saved."

YaYa bent forward and pressed her wet nose against the drossy fox. "It is no wonder that young Kurama has a hard time trusting." YaYa said gently as she breathed hot air over Danny and Kurama.

YaYa then turned and Danny could see several small animals that had been hiding behind YaYa chasing after the Great Matriarch. "YaYa is right. Yoko wear hunted to near extinction because of misunderstandings like that, as well as for their beautiful coats and false rumors about their blood giving immortality. This little guy was found all alone in a rice field in a rural area in china just before the students left for the summer last semester. We don't know what happened to his mother." Nolan said as they continued. "So we brought him back here. He was quite a headache. Until you came along, the only one he would let near him was YaYa." Danny looked sadly down at Kurama. "Don't worry. He will have a good life here. Everything will work out." Nolan said to lighten the mood. They arrived at a stained and spattered wooden bin.

"Here we are." Nolan said putting a hand on top the bin. "This is the feeding bin. All you have to do is tell it who the food is for and it will do the rest, watch. Food for Kurama: a Baby Wetland Yoko." The bin began to shake and light spilled out of the cracks in it.

Once the light dead away Nolan opened up the lid and pulled out a small lunchbox sized crate. "That seems pretty easy." Danny said taking the box and opening it. Inside was an assortment of unprocessed rice and wheat grains, berries and a sliced apple.

"Well for some it's harder, like Nick, the Lymrill. He eats twice his weight in metal and live rats every night. But he only needs to be feed once a night instead of three times a day." Nolan said. Danny was picking up the food piece by piece and feeding it to Kurama. "Yoko's really are beautiful creatures. You can tell that Kurama is just a baby because of the number of tails that he has. When their born Yoko only have one tail, but every so often after a harvest season a Yoko will cocoon itself for the winter and then when it breaks out in the spring it will have grown another tail. Right now Kurama is in his terrible twos and is like a toddler." Nolan joked. "We don't know exactly how much time is between the cycles of growth, since it varies from time to time. But after they grow their fifth tail they are considered adults. When that happens there fur changes from the golden coat that Kurama has now to a silver one. That's when their ready for mating." Danny brushed at the mention of mating causing Nolan to laugh. "But that will probably be fifty years from now for all we know. Don't worry yourself about having to find the little guy a mate."

After Kurama was done eating Nolan showed Danny how to return the crate and they lead Danny to Kurama's pen where Danny set down the now sleeping baby Yoko. "You really are a stroke of luck, Danny. We thought we were going to have to let Kurama go before you came along. I don't know if he could have survived out on his lonesome." Nolan said before giving Danny a booklet on 'Wetland Yokos' and waved goodbye.

Danny pushed the booklet into his pocket and walked out of the Warming Lodge. Looking around he saw that he was still getting attention from some of the older students so he left the Sanctuary all together. Turning invisible he went to explore several of the side paths that they had to overlook the day before.

Danny had a blast finding several creatures and structures that he had no idea what they were for. He ended up running out of a wooded area that came alive as he entered it laughing all the while. Then he found a well and decide to see what was down it only to find himself transported into the larder in the Manse's kitchen.

"Danny? How did you get here?" Bob asked in surprise as Danny walked out of the larder.

"I don't know, I was climbing down a well and ended up here." Danny said smiling.

"Why was Danny climbing down well?" Bob asked but then shook his head. "Bob does not have time for small talk. Bob must prepare evening feast." Bob said shoeing Danny out of the kitchen.

Danny walked out of the Manse again and hurried Old Tom's bells sound two o'clock. Danny vaguely remembered that being the time that was to be his afternoon break during the school year. Since he was going to be feeding Kurama during that time everyday he might as well get in the habit.

Danny reached the Warming Lodge and went to the feeding bin. "Food for Kurama, a baby Wetland Yoko." Danny said clearly. The bin shook like before and produced the same light. When it stopped Danny opened the hatch and collected the small crate. Carrying it over to Kurama's pen he found that it looked empty. "Kurama?" Danny said.

Kurama's head poked out from underneath a stump and he ran to Danny jumping on top of the small crate and started licking Danny's face. "Stop it Kurama, that tickles." Danny said giggling.

Danny carried Kurama's food outside as the little fox flew around in the air above him. Sitting down on a log, which was set out like a bench in front of the lodge, Danny opened the box and started to feed Kurama the wheat and bananas that were inside.

Danny was calmly feeding Kurama a piece of banana when he heard a snap and a flash went off. Turning his head he saw an older girl peeking out from behind a camera. "That was a great shot. I'm lucky I got two good ones of first years already." The girl said smiling as she put her camera away. She had long brown hair and blue eyes. Danny thought that she looked a little like Jazz. "So you're the rumored younger apprentice that everyone's been talking about."

"People are already talking." Danny said a little miserably.

"Nothing bad." The girl said quickly. "Just that you're the youngest person to ever become an apprentice at Rowan and that you were picked by the Yoko that was running wild during the end of the last semester."

"I would rather people just not talk about me." Danny said looking away from the girl. His attention was brought back to Kurama when the little fox bite his finger demanding the next piece of food.

"Oh don't be like that. I'm Julie Teller. I'm a Stage One Mystic and head photographer for the paper… I'm a third year." She added seeing that Danny didn't know what she meant.

"What do you mean by Stage One Mystic?" Danny asked not familiar with the term. Then realizing he hadn't introduced himself he added. "I'm Danny Fenton, by the way."

"Well hello Danny, and to answer your question, a stage one mystic is one that can manipulate and draw and some of the energy in the air around them. That's the majority of what you try to learn to do for the first two years here." Julie said.

"Is it really that hard?" Danny asked. He had learned to gather the energy around him a long time ago during his first few months as a half ghost.

Julie chuckled. "It's a lot harder than it sounds." She said before getting up. "Well I have my picture… you don't mind if I use that picture do you?" She asked. Danny shrugged and that was enough permission for her. "Thanks!" She shouted as she ran off.

Looking down at Kurama, Danny gathered some energy around his index finger causing it to glow a light white. Kurama began to lick the energy as if it was an ice-cream cone. "I guess you like that don't you?" Danny whispered and scratched the fox behind the ears.

Later that afternoon Danny dressed up in his formal cloths and went down to the dining hall for the welcoming feast. Danny felt uncomfortable as he walked next to Jazz. Everyone looked older in their formal cloths. Everyone that is, except for Danny. "I look ridiculous." Danny murmured angrily. "Why did they have to have a dress code for the parties?"

"Oh come on Danny, you look cute." Jazz chuckled and some of the other nearby girls giggled at Danny's expense. Danny bit his lip and the air around him dropped a few degrees. The nearby students began to shiver and rub themselves for warmth. Danny hadn't even realized what he was doing until Jazz elbowed him and fixed him with a disapproving look.

As they entered the dining hall they were greet by the sight of hundreds of older student in their formal uniforms, as well as the faculty that Danny only new about five of all together. The place was lit from above by candle light making everyone looked even older than Danny. Adult fauns played strange yet soothing music on lyres. The first years walked over to a table and sat down. On the table were several pitchers of spring wild flowers.

"These flowers are out of season. How are they so fresh?" Lucia said looking around to see that there were some on every table.

A nearby fourth year laughed. "All plants are always in season ever since the Yoko was brought here." He had a mild southern accent and looked at them with a grin. "That little varmint could grow a tree overnight if he felt like it."

"YaYa said that a Yoko could grow another food to feed an entire village even without any rain water." Danny said thinking back to what he had heard from YaYa.

"That's right. And we figure that Kurama is something special, even among his kind. You're the one that ended up being his care taker right? Hope you can teach him to watch those flames." He lifted his right hand which showed a burn scar and he grinned. "They really hurt."

They all sat down in their assigned seats which had been set up to alternate between boys and girls. Danny was between Jazz and the African girl Sara. "Please stand!" Ms. Richter said loudly from the front of the room.

Danny stood with the rest of them but couldn't see a thing because everyone around him was taller. Pouting a little he climbed up on his chair so he could see to the great amusement of the surrounding students. Glaring at them his was suddenly distracted by someone who was sitting at the second years' table. Danny couldn't see her face but she wasn't wearing the same formal uniform as the rest of the students. She was dressed in a black tank top and skirt. She had the same Raven black hair that Danny had and she was sitting separated by two seats from the rest of the second years.

Danny was pulled back to reality when some kind of Mystic amplified Ms. Richter's voice so it could easily filled the room without sounding pushed. "This is a House of Learning and today is the Day of Return, when teacher and pupil reforge their bonds and resume their progress on the path." The faculty and older students raised their glasses in a silent toast. Danny grabbed his glass of wine and did the same. "This is a House of Learning and today is a Day of Remembrance, when we gather to honor our past, embracing both its joys and sorrows." Again, everyone lifted their glasses. "This is a House of Learning and today is a Day of Renewal, when Rowan welcomes a new class bringing with them life and promise to grace these halls and grounds."

Danny nearly fell of his chair when the hall answered. "We welcome them with open arms. We will help them on the way!"

The students and faculty raised their glasses towards the first years before draining them. Lucia drained hers to and so did Connor and some of the others. Jazz took sips and Danny spat out his little taste and rubbed his tong on his sleeve to get rid of the taste. "People actually like drinking this stuff?" Danny said as everyone around him had another laugh.

Danny ate diner like the rest of them, stuffing his face with everything in reach to the great disapproval of his older sister. Cynthia had gone into the story of her vision and getting her letter. She described how she had been at an aquarium and the fish had swum around in hypnotic fashions. Once she was done others started to share their experiences and visions.

"You're lucky." Danny said after Connor was done with his. "All of you had pretty visions."

"Why, what was your vision, Danny-boy?" Connor asked curiously.

"I saw a… woman drowning her child… in a lake made of corpses." Danny said between bites of mashed potato. There was the sound of silverware falling to plates. "What?"

"I think I'm going to be sick." Lucie said her eyes wide with horror.

Just then three second years came over to the table. Danny zoned out what they said as he looked over to the second year table to see the girl he saw earlier getting up to leave. Danny barely registered the second years introducing themselves as Alex Munoz, Anna Lundgren, and Sasha Ivanovich.

Jazz on the other hand was staring at the three new comers. Her instants were telling her that they were nothing but trouble.

"So are you guys excited about the big camp out?" Whispered Alex, he was big kid with black hair and a way of holding himself that made Jazz think that he was from some kind of privileged family, like he was looking down on everyone else. Jazz just knew that they were baiting them.

"What camp out?" Cynthia asked taking the bait.

"The one tonight, out on the kestrel." The blond haired Anna said looking astonished. "Didn't anyone tell you?"

"No." Said Connor leaning forward. "What's it all about?"

"It's kind of a first year tradition for class bonding." Sasha said. "The first years sneak out and spend the night on the kestrel; out by midnight, back by sunrise."

"Isn't that against the rules?" Jazz said disapprovingly.

"Yes and no." Answered Alex. "The 'rules' say that kestrel is off limits. But the tradition has been around a long time. As long as you're careful and quiet, the faculty will look the other way."

"You're lying." Jazz said with absolute certainty.

"It's your discussion." Anna said smiling at Jazz. "We had a great time. But if you want to be the first class not to do it…"

"We didn't say that!" Connor practically shouted. "Come on guys it will be fun." The others seemed to agree with him.

"Well count me out." Jazz said getting up from the table. "I'm not going to stop you if you want to do this, but I've got a bad feeling." Then her voice became more threatening. "And if I find out you tried to drag Danny along with you." She punched the top of the table hard enough to make it shuttered. Danny was snapped out of his trance. "There will be consequences."

The rest of the first years stared as she walked away. "Danny-boy… your sister is scary." Connor said in a shaky voice.

"Only when she's mad. But she isn't mad right now." Danny said lightly. "What were you guys talking about? I wasn't paying attention."

"Nothing!" The entire table said at once.

"Ok… see you guys tomorrow then!" Danny said before running out of the hall.

Danny was up in his room at nine o'clock just like Jazz wanted him to be but he didn't feel like going to sleep. Danny still wanted to explore the campus. So he called out the ring of white light which passed over him and made his dress uniform disappear, replaced with the black and white jumpsuit with the white hoodie and black baggy pants pulled over it.

Turning invisible he flew out over the campus enjoying the open night air. Looking down Danny saw the entrance to the Sanctuary and flew straight through it. He then flew straight up and looked out over the entire other space stretched out below him before diving down and dipping and weaving through the trees.

He stopped however when he heard laughter. Flouting towards the sound he found a small clearing and stopped behind a tree on the edge of it. In the middle of the clearing was the girl for the feast, the one that had been sitting by herself.

She was still in the black tank top and skirt, but in the light of the moon Danny could see that she was wearing her short black hair in a small ponytail. She was surrounded by a dozen of the Sanctuary's inhabitance including the giant hawk Hector that Danny had seen take away the cow on his first trip into the Sanctuary. Most of the others were different bats, owls and raccoons as well as some other nocturnal animals.

She was humming a tone as she rocked what looked like a baby tiger with white fur in her arms. The tiger was drinking from a baby bottle that the girl was holding to it and had a small splint on its left foreleg. Danny was again hypnotized by the girl and stood there for what seemed like hours to him just staring at her.

Even though he was invisible however the nearby creatures noticed his presence. They began to steer and moved in Danny's direction. "Is someone there?" The girl asked. As she looked over to where Danny was standing, Danny let out a held breath at the sight of her vivid amethyst eyes. "You can come out you know. I won't hurt you." She said gently.

Danny let his invisibility drop but was still behind the tree. The clearing filled with the glow that came off of his body in short wisps of energy as if Danny was a second moon. His light illuminated the girls face even further and Danny felt lightheaded as he looked at her pretty smile and purple eyes.

"I haven't seen you around here before, are you new to Rowan?" the girl asked.

"Yeah." Danny said peeking out from behind the tree.

"Well then, welcome to Rowan." She said moving the tiger around in her lap and patting its back. The tiger gave a little burp and the girl giggle. "My name's Sam by the way, Sam Manson."

"I'm… I'm called Phantom." Danny said not wanting to give his real name.

"Phantom… I like it. It's both generic and unique at the same time." Sam said with a chuckle.

Danny started to come out from behind the tree and moving forward towards her. "Is that your charge?" Danny asked her pointing towards the baby tiger in Sam's arms.

"Oh no, my charge is Lilith a Forest Sprite but she's already asleep. I just like spending time with the charges whose caretakers aren't around all the time, like the Recruiters and the Agents… and the ones that don't come back." She added a little more softly. "This is Clifford, he's a Monsoon Tiger." Sam said holding up the little guy. "He got a little too excited yesterday and hurt his leg. I hear they had a rain storm in the Sanctuary and Monsoon Tigers just love the rain." Sam said petting the baby tiger.

"Can… can I take a look?" Danny asked. Sam smiled and nodded and Danny flouted closer to the baby tiger. The other animals moved a side to make a path for him. Danny leaned over the cub and inspected the leg. "You already set the leg right?" Danny asked.

Sam nodded. "But it will take some time to heal."

Danny looked back down and put his gloved hands over the injury letting them hover two inches over it. Pulsating white and blue lights came from his hands and Sam gave a little gasp of astonishment. Danny was using a technique that he had learned from Frostbite to quickly heal injures.

"That should do it." Danny said as he took his hands away. "Are you feeling better now, Clifford?" The tiger gave off a meow and struggled out of Sam's arms to hop around the grass.

"Wow, how did you do that?" Sam asked in amazement as the cat returned to her and she inspected the leg. "It's completely healed." She then started to take of the splint.

"My uncle taught me." Danny said smiling. "I hear that humans call it mystics. We just call it energy." Putting his hand in front of the tiger and let the energy gather around his fingers. The little tiger stared at the light and tried to bat at it with a paw.

"If you don't mind me asking… what are you?" Sam asked looking as curious as the oversized kitten in her arms.

"I…" Danny said and then hesitated.

"You don't have to tell me. I understand. I shouldn't have asked." Sam said quickly as if sensing his hesitation. "So how do you like Rowan?"

They exchanged a little small talk about the campus. It ended with them exchanging stories of weird things that they had seen there, each of them trying to have the weirdest. "Well, I found a well off the side of the main path that if you jump into it, it will take you to the back room in the kitchen." Danny said excitedly.

"There is a garden here, where rock candy growing from vines that are wrapped around a statue of President Lincoln on a toilet." Sam said triumphantly.

"Wow…" Danny said with wide eyes bowing his head in defeat.

Sam laughed. "Don't worry, I've been exploring this campus for a whole year now, have gotten myself into a few tight spots doing it to." Sam said and then reached up to scratch the large bird Hector under the chin. "That's how I meet Hector here. He pulled me out of a group of angry pixies during my second month here." The large bird gave off a loud crowing sound. "It's nice to finally have someone to talk to that actually talks back." Sam said smiling.

"What do you mean?" Danny asked crossing his legs and starting to spin, turning himself upside down.

Sam laughed. "Well, most of the people in my section are total jerks." Sam said pulling her knees in. Then she clarified. "A section is the group of students that have all their classes together. Each year has five sections." Danny nodded understandingly. "The others in mine have ridiculous pride issues and seem to love the misery of others. I have even seen one, a boy named Alex Munoz, actually kick one of the charges."

Danny frowned. 'Why is that name familiar?' he wondered.

"I know that every year has its share of rotten apples, but I got stuck with all of them." Sam said angrily. "That's why I spend all my time in the Sanctuary. It's my Sanctuary away from them."

Danny was trying to think of what to say when a loud wailing sound reached them. Danny lost his concentration and fell down on his head. "What's that?" Danny exclaimed jumping to his feet.

"I don't know, I think it's the kestrel's guardian." Sam said covering her ears. "But everyone knows that the kestrel is off limits."

Danny got to his feet. "I'm going to see if anyone needs help." He then rocketed off into the sky as Sam gazed after him, watching his spectral trail.

Danny shot through the tunnel out of the Sanctuary and flew high into the air. Danny could see the sea turning wildly as the kestrel was shaking as if to get rid of its intruders. With Danny's natural night vision he could see students jumping off of the boat and into the turning waters to get away from the death trap.

Some of them didn't seem to be the best swimmers and were struggling to keep their heads above the water. Danny dived down and scooped up two of the students who began to scream and twist in his hands. Placing them on the beach, Danny recognized Connor and Cynthia in the darkness.

Turning back he made seven more runs until twelve children were sitting on the beach in front of him. "Was that everyone?" Danny said, glad for the powerful echo that was hiding his voice. His hood was pulled up so that only thing that they could see from the light he was giving off was his snowy white hair and green eyes, things that were completely unlike Danny. One of them nodded looking at Danny with terrified eyes.

Danny heard gasps behind him and turned to see that several students and faculty had come to the beach lured there by the wailing sound. Danny saw many of them staring at him with wide eyes or pointing and whispering to one and other. Danny saw Sam among them and gave a nod in her direction and brought a finger in front of his lips as if to say not to talk about him. She nodded and then in front of everyone's eyes he disappeared, like a phantom in the night.


	8. Chapter 8

I own nothing, not the characters, the space where this story exists, or even the eyes that you are using to read it. This is for entertainment proposes only, no money involved.

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><p>The next day the entire school was a buzz about the previous night's events. Jazz gave Danny a knowing smile when she had heard about it the following morning. She didn't know that Danny had stayed up past his curfew. She had only assumed that Danny had woken up with the rest of the school when the wailing started and had gone down to 'save the day'.<p>

The students were fascinated with the appearance of the small white haired child. None of the faculty knew what it was but many guessed that it was some kind of old magical security system that the first years unknowingly called on.

Jazz had her fun with the 'I told you so's for a good three hours until the group that had gone to the boat went for their punishment for breaking the rules. They ended up shoveling horse manure for the rest of the day. Danny had gone out again that night and spent an hour talking with Sam before returning to his room to get some sleep for his first day of classes.

Waking up around five, Danny pulled out a halberd and did a little practice before going to feed Kurama. He left his room after getting his things a little before six to find many of his class mates stumbling about in a daze, all of them exhausted from their punishment the day before or from taking care of their charges. Danny had already gone to feed Kurama his morning breakfast and had spent thirty minutes swinging around a heavy weapon but still felt right as rain.

"How you feeling?" Omar asked Max as they both stumbled down the stairs.

"I can't even see straight." Max groaned. "Nick kept me out until eleven."

"Can Nick talk?" Omar asked as he tried to shake himself awake.

"No." Max answered.

"Well, you should be thankful. Try caring for Tweedy." Omar said with a bit of disgust in his voice. "He's making me memorize the life works of his favorite composers."

Danny and Max grunted with sympathy as they entered a basement classroom. It was a large space that's floor was covered in firm, spongy mats. A tall, wiry man with a black military hair cut and eyebrows that stuck out a little stood in the middle of the room. He wore a baggy shirt and pants and his feet were bare. He drank from a water bottle as he glanced over a clipboard. He didn't even look up as the students entered.

"Remove your shoes." He murmured with a bit of a Scottish accent. "Start jogging around the room." Danny jogged around the room with the other right beside Jazz who had arrived with the other girls shortly after him. "Faster!" the man shouted and the students went faster.

After a few minutes Jazz was starting to have heavy breathing and Danny started to force himself to gasp for air like the rest of the kids. Most of the students had fell behind a lap or more so Danny started to slow down and stumble a little. "Stop!" The man shouted and walked up to Danny as most of the students fell to the floor gasping. "What are you doing?" He asked in an angry tone.

Danny was still panting and looked up at the man. "What… what do you… mean?" He said.

"I mean that you are not even slightly tired. Why are you acting like you are exhausted when you don't have a drop of perspiration on you?" The man asked. Danny stopped panting and looked away from the man. "I don't tolerate slacking here. Do not act tired if you are not." The students on the ground gawked at the scene in silent horror.

"Jazz told me not to do better than the other students at my old school." Danny said feebly.

The man glared. "That might have been acceptable at your old school, but this school is meant to prepare you to fight for your life if you one day need to. So do not pretend to be weak as these other sticks of butter you call your classmates." Danny nodded as some of the other students blushed at being referred to as weak sticks of butter compared to the small boy.

"Alright, everyone gather over here. Spread out along the floor facing me. Stretch your hamstrings like so." He spread his legs and bent over lowering his head to his knee and held it there. Danny and Jazz were both fine lowering their heads like the instructor, but the others struggled. The man stood up and started walking around making snappy comments about the form of the children.

"I am Monsieur Renard. I will be your instructor for Training and Games. You will either love or hate me. This does not concern me." Connor made the unfortunate mistake of relaxing just as Renard moved behind him. "Most of you are fat and lazy, like overstuffed sausages." He said digging his toe into Connor's gut. "I'm going to see if we can't change that. Cynthia Gilley?"

"Ye… Yes?" Cynthia gasped.

Renard started to read from his list. "Cynthia Gilley: 'Lactic production rate: 49. Lactic dispersion rate: 34. Twitch speed: 51. Muscular density, current: 36…' Hmmm. You might have to be a special project. And I do not like special projects." Cynthia sulked. "Rolf Luger?"

"Here." The German boy puffed from his position on the ground.

"Not bad… we will see what we can do." Renard said and Rolf suddenly looked more serious. "Max McDaniels?"

"Here." Max said worriedly.

"Congratulations Mr. McDaniels. Your score of 95 in twitch speed set a record high, not only in twitch speed but over all individual categories as well." Renard said everyone but Danny and Jazz stared at Max. The siblings exchanged puzzled looks. "That is until the very next week when Jasmine Fenton beat your 95 with her 98 in synaptic bypass." All the looks turned to Jazz who blushed. Max looked a mixture of relieved and jealous. Danny's head hit the floor as he realized what was up next. "That record lasted for all of ten minutes till her younger brother's test, where Daniel Fenton got an unimagined 112 in mental stress fatigue, though the sense is not registered accurate for anything higher than 100 so it very well could be higher." Murmurs of astonishment went through the room.

"Of course Danny-boy got the record." Connor said laughing a bit.

"What do those numbers even mean?" Lucia asked.

Renard scratched his chin. "Twitch speed is a measurement of how fast the individual can react. Synaptic bypass is how well they can adapt to an activity and make it second nature. And mental stress fatigue is a measure of how well and long you can control your actions in a stressful environment and how long you can stay focused as well as keeping your heart-rate under control. With how well Daniel did, I believe he could thread a needle in the middle of a tornado."

The training class lasted an hour and by the end of it everyone but the Fenton siblings were groaning and pouring with sweat. Jazz was breathing heavily and whipping perspiration from her brow as she left. "Still isn't as bad as Aunt Pandora's training." She said as they walked out into the halls.

"That's for sure." Danny said as he skipped merrily along. The other first years looked at the two with a mixture of fascination and horror. Danny had yet to break a sweat and Mr. Renard had been especially hard on him.

Danny changed into his uniform and went up for breakfast as Jazz went to shower with the others. Soon some of the others joined Danny, they were all still moaning a little but the cool water did them some good. "How first day of training?" Bob asked with a knowing smile.

The students moaned. Jazz merely shrugged. "Wasn't as bad as what I was expecting." Bob laughed and walked away saying 'Agents in the making' in Russian.

Danny ran to his first class as the rest of his class watched him with exhausted looks on their faces. Getting to Maggie, Danny quickly found the classroom and sat down in the front row. He was excited because the first class was Humanities. Danny had loved listing to the ancient Clockwork's stories of the civilizations of old.

After most of the other students arrived and pulled themselves into seats the door opened on last time and an elderly man entered. He looked around as he walked down the auditorium like stairs to the deck in the front of the room. Sliding down into an old leather chair he pulled out a pipe and lit it. "Don't see any familiar faces here." The elderly man said coughing slightly before straighten up. "Good, I must be in the right place. Welcome to Humanities for first year apprentices, I am Byron Morrow, I'll be your instructor."

Lucia coughed and raised a hand. "Mr. Morrow, will you be smoking a pipe every day?" She asked.

"Yes I will, is that ok with you?" Mr. Morrow said looking at the girl.

"I'm allergic to smoke." Lucia said.

"Heaven help you in Mystics." Mr. Morrow said with a chuckle before waving his hand. The smoke from his pipe fell to the ground where it snaked its way across the floor to the window. "Better?" He asked. Lucia nodded wide eyed.

Throughout the period Mr. Morrow gave a passionate explanation about what the course would be about in a deep baritone voice. The course with be a mixture of history, literature, writing, and mythology. He said that it would be a challenging course, but that any student that need help could find him in his cabin beyond the sand dunes in the Sanctuary. Danny had remembered seeing the cabin from the skies above the Sanctuary and personally wondered how the elderly man was able to get to class with the two mile walk that he would have to do every day through the sand dunes.

The next two classes were mathematics and science. Danny was surprised to find that he was on par in the classes despite his younger status. On the diagnostic test in math Danny managed to do as much as anyone besides Cynthia, Sara, David, and Jazz.

After that was Languages. Danny and Jazz impressed the teacher by already knowing how to speak as well as read and write in Greek, though she questioned there ancient accent. She also handed out devises that would convert any language that the students heard into their native tong and teach them the language as they heard it. Because of that the language class was more about writings and culture of the different places.

After that the morning classes were over Danny ate a quick lunch before racing out to go see Kurama during the break. Danny quickly feed and played with Kurama before returning to his class underneath their class tree. Danny glanced up nervously at his red and gold apple as if it was going to scream his secrets to the world.

"Hi Danny, how's Kurama doing?" Jazz asked as Danny sat down with the rest of them.

"He's fine." Danny said looking over at his older sister who was already reading her science book to do the homework they were assigned. "I would have brought him with me, but he is on permanent ban from the orchard."

Danny lad down in the shade and closed his eyes taking in the smell of the earth underneath him. He had forgotten the kinds of thing that he had been missing out in life because he was always in the ghost zone; the moonlit nights, the grass between his fingers, the gentle breeze in the air. Danny had never admitted to anyone that he had wanted those things. He had never let any of his personal desires show. His sister and the ghosts had all done so much for him, that he felt ashamed to ever ask for something more. But he really was glad that they had decided to go to Rowan.

Danny was jolted out of his thoughts by an unwelcome voice. "Hey, it's the tadpoles!" Someone said. Sitting up Danny saw one of the boys that had come to the table the other day followed by the other two as well as other second years. Danny remembered that the leading boy's name was Alex Munoz.

Alex made a motion like he was smelling the air. "But why would tadpoles smell like horse manure?"

"I don't know, but it sure does stink." Said Sasha, another one of the second years from the day before. Danny then remembered that it was those three that had lured his classmates out onto the kestrel.

Connor held his nose. "We smell because we were cleaning up after the horses yesterday, what's your excuse, Munoz?" Danny laughed with the rest of his class. Even some of the second years laughed at the joke. Alex didn't look happy.

Sara stood up and pointed an accusatory finger at Alex. "You know, that wasn't funny the other night. I can't swim. Someone could have hit their head and drowned. Whatever was in the water could have hurt us." Sara said angrily.

Axel clapped his hands to his cheeks and imitated Sara's voice saying. "Did you hear that, someone could have been hurt?" He mocked. Some laughed but others looked uncomfortable.

"Do you think death is funny?" Danny said glaring at the second year. "How stupid are you? Leading someone who trusts you to their death is the ultimate sin."

"Lookie here, the mini tadpole thinks he's all wise." Sasha mocked.

Jazz snapped her book shut and stood between Sasha and Danny. "You leave Danny alone. You three should feel ashamed of yourselves. These kids trusted you and you tried to hurt them. You took advantage of them." Jazz said pushing a finger into Sasha's chest surprising the older boy. Jazz's face was pure rage and they were struck with fear. "I on the other hand never trusted you. I could tell at a glance what you are; you're scum, as simple as that." She pushed Sasha back hard, sending the boy stumbling. "So have your laughs. Because at the end of the day you are still nothing and you will still smell worse than the stuff coming out of a horse's butt." Jazz said angrily and turned her back on them as they stood in shock.

Recovering Sasha retaliated in anger. "Why you little…" He reached out and was about to grab onto Jazz's hair when he was elbowed hard in the gut by Danny.

He's knees buckled slightly from the sudden lack of oxygen and Danny grabbed his outstretched arm and throw him over his shoulder were he landed on his back a few feet away. "Don't touch my sister." Danny hissed.

"I could have handled it, Danny." Jazz said looking over her shoulder and her little brother before leaning down and picking back up her book. The other students just murmured about the eight year old boy who just shoulder tossed a thirteen year old boy seven feet.

"If I let you do it, you would have broken his arm and probably some ribs too." Danny said scoffing but still standing at the ready in case of further attacks.

"Why you?" Sasha was staging to his feet and rushed Danny. Danny was prepared to intercept the attack when a foot came out and tripped the second year boy causing him to fall on his face again. Sasha spat out a mouth full of grass before turning his head to see who tripped him. "Oh great, Manson." He said angrily.

Danny's heart skipped a beat as when he saw Sam standing there in one of the navy blue uniforms holder her hands on her hips as she glared down at Sasha. The gentle smile she had around the charges replaced with a serious battle ready look.

"What are you doing here, Samantha?" Anna spat. "Can't you see that no one wants you here?"

"Look who's talking." Sam said back rolling her eyes. "As far as I can tell you three stooges were just trying to pick on the new guys. Not that you seem to be having much luck. Not surprising when you have about a half a brain between the three of you. What are you trying to prove anyways?"

"We're not trying to prove anything." Alex said innocently. "We were just welcoming the tadpoles to Rowan. The tadpoles were just taking it all wrong. Come on, shake my hand." Alex said extending his hand to Jesse who looked at it untrustingly.

Max stood up and swatted the hand away. Alex faked having his feeling hurt saying a few things that Danny didn't really care about. Danny was watching Max. The boy's eyes were focused on Alex's hands and the moment Alex started to lift them, Max brought up a quick right jab into face. But that's where Max's good fighting instances left him and he turned away allowing Alex another time to recover and land a hard it on Max's eye.

The two went at and drove each other to the ground with kicks and punches. Anna tried to go in and help Alex but Sam grabbed the girl and started a fight with her as well. Danny was still in a daze from the appearance of Sam and only registered that there were two boys coming up behind her.

Danny went in and started fighting them off. There were twenty seconds of chaos before a voice ended it all. "Enough!" Bob the ogre had arrived at the scene and pulled Max off of Alex, who he had pinned to the ground and was know sporting a blooded lip. Several second year boys had pulled Alex back from jumping back at Max. Another two were pulling away and unconscious Anna how had a blooded nose and Danny hardly noticed the five second years that were face down on the ground in front of him. "Children should not be fighting."

Alex through off the arms that were holding him. "Why don't you go back to the kitchen, you stupid ogre?" Several of the second years all started to yell at Alex for insulting Bob. Alex spat at the ogre and then left. All the other second years also left except for Sam, the injured being carried away by those who could still walk.

"You alright?" Sam asked Max looking at him. "Looks like he's going to have a black eye."

"Bob will take him to get ice." Bob said and then lead Max away.

"Sorry about the others. Munoz and his friends are scum." Sam said glaring after her classmates.

Jazz laughed. "You don't have to tell us that."

"I'm surprised how well you handled yourselves. Rowan kids never lack guts but usually first years usually wouldn't stand a chance against second, a second can't bet a third and so on. But you can really fight." Sam said nodding her approval and looking at Danny. "You're the one that became Kurama's caretaker right? You handled yourself well, nice job. I'm Sam Manson. And don't call me Samantha!" She said smiling.

Danny blushed and looked down at his feet. "I'm… I'm Danny… Danny Fenton." He mumbled. Many of his classmates went wide eyed and exchanged knowing glances.

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Danny." Sam said nodding at him. "I would love to chat, but I got to run. Maybe I will see you after classes."

There were a few moments of silence before Jazz sighed and closed her book again. "We should probably go to our next class too."

There next class was Strategy. Danny remembered his classes on Strategy with Pandora, he had never done very well. He was always making up for poor planning with power and skill. Jazz was the master tactician.

"Come in come in." Mr. Watanabe said. He was a slim Japanese man with thinning hair. He walked around the room going from student to student and stopped at Max. "What happened to you?" He asked looking at Max black eye.

"Um… I fell and hurt my eye." Max said hastily. Danny bit his tong to stop himself from laughing.

Mr. Watanabe looked at Max as if he was wondering if Max thought teachers were idiots then he looked down at Max's scratched knocks before scanning the room for a matching pair. Not finding one since Danny aimed for the squishier parts of the human body, Mr. Watanabe conclude that the person he was fighting was not in his class.

"Welcome to your first year of strategy and tactics. My name is Omi Watanabe, and I will be your instructor." He said with a slight bow. "So how can define strategy for me."

"Strategy is setting up events to maximize your chance of success while minimizing risk." Jazz said giving the definition she had been given by Pandora. "It changes based on what kind of loses are acceptable and how much you need to achieve."

"Very good." Omi Watanabe said before going into his lecture. Danny tried to listen but his thoughts kept going back to the orchard and Sam. Sam had reminded him of Pandora and even his own mother, so kind and gentle until an enemy shows itself. Danny couldn't help being in awe of her.

As far as Danny understood of the class, it would be divided between looking at the abstract concept of strategy and on something they called tactics which was basically researching the known enemies and making plans for if you face them.

After the class was over the rest of the students poured out quickly. Danny and Jazz were huddling behind. "Remember to control yourself." Jazz warned quietly as they started moving behind the group.

"I know. I won't show off in front of the others." Danny said sadly.

Jazz looked at her little brother with a worried expression. "I'm sorry Danny." She said putting a hand on his shoulder. "I know you want to see what you can really do. But it might not be a good idea to let people know just how special you really are, even here." Danny nodded understandingly before they hurried up to catch up with the group.

There next class was Mystics. Danny was a mixture of excited and nervous about the class. He wanted to learn what he could do, but after talking with Julie he realized that he was far beyond the first year curriculum.

"I think Mystics will be my favorite." Lucia said excitedly. "I put out my fire in under a minute. The recruiter said that it was very good." There were some murmurs from the others who were impressed by this.

Danny laughed. "Jazz put hers out in less than 25 seconds." He said happily. There were sounds of amazement from the surrounding students.

"And how did you do Danny-boy?" Connor asked rolling his eyes. "Does time not go fast enough for it to be measured."

Danny blushed. "I… I don't remember." He said not wanting to tell them.

"What? How can you forget something like putting out your first fire?" Cynthia said in surprise.

"I can't seem to remember how he did either." Jazz added as some people looked to her.

They found the classroom and quickly entered and the sight made everyone forget about Danny's time. Miss Boon was standing in what appeared to be a large forest and was talking to an elderly woman. The students wondered in wide eyed at the unusual surroundings of towering trees in what they had thought was an indoor classroom.

But as Danny looked closer he noticed that it wasn't really a forest. There were hard wood floors and eight walls closing off the space. Each wall other than the one with the door had a small fireplace built into it. Danny stared closely at the silver marking that filled the walls. He had seen similar marking in the halls of the Far Frozen.

But soon Old Tom's bell rang to mark the start of class and the students all took seat in chair that sat on a large rug in the center of the room. "Alright Students." Miss Boon started. "Before we begin I want to introduce you to a very special guest, this is Annika Kraken. She is the chair of the Mystics department." The old woman smiled kindly and bowed her head. "Instructor Kraken only teaches the fifth and sixth year students, but she might come in from time to time and I expect you to show her respect." Miss Boon said.

"You're in good hands, children." Kraken said smiling. "Miss Boon is one of the very best we have had in all my time." She waved goodbye and hobbled slowly to the door closing it behind her.

Miss Boon then cleared her throat and began the class. "When each of you completed the stander of tests for potentials you demonstrated a capacity for Mystics. Mystics can take many forms but at its center Mystics is the ability to channel and manipulate energy." Miss Boon said. Danny nodded thinking about his powers. "Understand that Mystics is a highly individual subject. No two among us are the same when it comes to our raw talents and our ability to access them. There are some Mystics who are able to draw upon large stores of energy but end up wasting much of it. Likewise there are some who have considerably less horsepower, but can maximize the use of it. You will find that some branches of Mystics come naturally to you, where others are inaccessible to you. As your instructor, it is my job to help you understand your natural abilities and to help you make the most of them. Now, are there any questions?"

Lucia raised her hand. "How do we know how much… horsepower we have?" She asked.

Miss Boon nodded at the question. "The potentials test is one measure, but my researched says that it may be an incomplete one. Some who score well on the test turn out to be hopeless Mystics?" Lucia looked hurt.

Danny raised his hand cautiously. "Is it bad if we have… a lot of horsepower?"

Miss Boon laughed. "Generally speaking more horsepower is better. I don't think we will need to worry about someone having too much raw power, since it will take time before any of you can access more than a small portion of your well of energy." Some of the students looked at Danny curiously. David looked like he wanted to disagree.

Connor raised his hand. "Do we use staves or wands or stuff?" He asked.

"No such items are rare and extremely dangerous and are not necessary to perform Mystics. No, a Mystic's tools are their hands and the power of language. These are all you will need to summon and control the energies around you. This year you will be learning the basic commands so that they become second nature." Miss Boon said and waved her hands. Two torches lit and the smoke from them gathered together.

"Would you look at that?" Connor said in amazement as the smoke molded itself to look like him. The smoky copy of Connor waved before walking into a fireplace and going up the chimney. With another wave the torches were extinguished.

"To get you started I would like you to form two lines." Miss Boon said. Danny ended up in the sixth spot in his line with Jazz right in front of him. "Today you will be doing the opposite of what you did before. That is kindling a fire. This will show that you can gather the energy and focus it as a living conduit. During this exercise I will be the only one talking. If anyone talked or makes any kind of distraction he or she will be asked to leave. Understood?" The students nodded.

"Ok." Miss Boon continued. "I would like the first person in each line to step forward and face the fireplace in front of them." Two girls stepped forward. "Spread your feet and try to relax. I want you to focus on the beating of your heart, feel its energy. Now I want you to feel the energy in this room, the atoms and molecules buzzing in the area. Close your eyes and picture the logs in the hearth beginning to smoke. Imagine the smoke coming faster and faster until the wood ignites. Now keep your right hand at your side and spread your fingers with the palm facing forward. When I give you the word I want you to raise your arm and make a tight fist. Do you understand?" The girls nodded. "Now." Miss Boon gave the word.

Both girls lifted their arms and made the fists and the logs began to smoke. Murmurs swept through the class but they were silenced by a glance from Miss Boon. "Alright do it again." Miss Boon instructed. The some came more heavily from both and one have tiny sparks of bright purple flames.

"Good, next." Miss Boon said returning the logs to a cold state with a flick of her hands.

The next three pairs didn't have any sparks of fire but saw plenty of smoke. On Jazz's turn, she received the same instructions and did the motion. On the first attempt there was a large amount of smoke and a small group of bright blue sparks. Repeating the motion Jazz got a steady fire going. The class had to be silence again as they stared in awe at the azure blue and tangerine orange flames.

"Very good. It isn't often that student's get such results on their first day." Miss Boon congratulated her as she went to be back of the line. Jazz throw a worried glance at Danny.

Danny didn't even hear Miss Boon's instructions. He went into the position and gathered the energy. He realized he had gathered too much and took only a small fraction of the power he had gathered in order to test the waters. Miss Boon gave the word and Danny hesitantly raised his hand and clenched his fist.

His fireplace sprang to life with a low green and blue flame. Danny was shocked because he felt like he had held back more than that. Connor who had been standing next to Danny laughed a little as his fireplace only smoked. "Of course Danny-boy got it on his first."

Danny bit his lip as he looked apologetically at Jazz who nodded understandingly. Danny returned to the end of the line and it was David and Lucia's turn. David looked as nervous as Danny had felt as he stood there coughing into his hand.

After the instructions David lifted his hand and made a fist. Danny and Jazz both felt something surging up from the front of the room moments before the students were thrown back as David's fireplace exploded. Giant green and gold flames poured out of it and burned the nearby walls and the carpet's nearest corner began to smoke. "Stay down!" Miss Boon shouted over the noise of the fire and made a motion with her hands and said a sharp command. The flames were unchanged. She repeated the motion but the fire was out of control.

"Enough!" Danny shouted getting to his feet and running to the front of the class. Calling on the energy inside and around him he threw up and solid green shield between the class and the fire. Then he began to form his energy making it cold and sending it in waves over David's fire. The wooden floor on the other side of the shield began to freeze and crack as the fire was pushed back until it was gone. Only after the logs were frozen as well did Danny let down his shield. "Is everyone ok?" He asked turning to the class.

The class was staring in shock at both David and Danny. The boys immediately looked ashamed and tried not to meet anyone's gaze. Miss Boon was the first to recover. "Yes… well, please go the end of the line. Next group please."

Things were not helped when Miss Boon found that she could not melt the ice and Danny had to release the conjured ice. The rest of the groups managed a little smoke, but the fires from earlier stopped their concentration. When the last pair finished Miss Boon instructed them all to sit in their seats.

Lucia was the first one to speak. "Miss Boon… what… what happened during David's turn?"

"He kindled a flame, as instructed." Miss Boon said flatly.

"Yes but… why did it… explode?" Lucia asked. "And how did Danny do… whatever he did."

"Apparently David has a lot of… horsepower." Miss Boon said hesitantly. "And Danny seems to be very… talented in controlling Mystics."

After the class was dismissed David and Danny were asked to stay behind as the rest of the class felt. Jazz gave Danny a tender smile and told him that everything was alright and that he didn't do anything wrong before leaving to go to the edict class. They waited in silence until Ms. Richter showed up.

"I suppose I should have seen this coming." Ms. Richter said sadly. The boys looked uncomfortable. Ms. Richter chuckled in order to lighten the mood. "Don't worry you are not in trouble and you haven't done anything wrong. The damage to the room will be fixed by tomorrow morning at the latest." She assured them. "The thing is that you two are very special, ever among our kind. Remember how I spoke of the first of our kind and the old magic they processed." David nodded and Danny only blushed since he couldn't remember. "Well the two of you process large stores of the old magic. That is the reason that your Mystics are so… advanced."

"Danny? Please be honest with me. I know in the past you have had to hide your Mystic in order to be safe but you don't have to worry here. How much can you do?" Ms. Richter asked Danny gently.

Danny hesitated before letting go of gravity and flouting a few feet off of the ground. Miss Boon stared at him wide eyed. Flight was a very high level mystic skill, even if it could be done without incantation or hand signs. Danny's hands began to glow with energy and then his entire body. "I can gather a lot of energy." Danny said simply. "I think this is about my peak." Ms. Richter had to shield her eyes slightly from the glow that was coming off of the boy. "I can shape it and use it to make ice." Danny said and formed a ball of energy in one hand and a globe of ice in the other. "But that's it." Danny lied. He didn't want to show them anything that would be connected to ghosts.

"How long have you been able to do this?" Miss Boon said tentatively.

"My fifth birthday. Jazz came into my room at night to find me flowing in the air uncontrollably. I have been practicing for control ever since." Danny said looking at the ground and lowering himself to it. "Are you going to take me away now?" The instructors looked shocked. "Jazz said if people found out they might try to take me away, or hurt me."

Ms. Richter shook her head. "No dear, we won't take you way, but we will need to take you out of your Mystics class. You will have private lessons once we can arrange them." Ms. Richter said. "You seem to have a good deal of control so I am not worried about you hurting yourself or others, but you won't learn anything from being in first years Mystics. No offence Hazel." Miss Boon nodded understandingly. "We will teach you things at the rate that you are capable of learning them, instead of with the class."

Ms. Richter then turned to David. "David, you will also be privately tutored. But I don't think we will have you and Danny in the same room. You still need to learn control before you can move on. But it might be too dangerous for you to be around the other students will you are practicing." David nodded.

"Now we need to take you to a facility here called the Archives, where we can get a good idea what your limits are so we know what kind of safety percussions will be needed." Ms. Richter led them out of the room and Danny felt excited again. He was getting to skip all the normal lessons of Mystics and go straight to the interesting stuff.

They reached the Archives which entrance was just a normal classroom. Ms. Richter had to place a chalk board on the ground hand right a command on it, then when she lifted up the chalk board it revealed a secret passageway. Danny could sense that it was another space he was entering. He gazed at the walls of books and weapons with awe written on his face. But they took a side door into a room with a large empty tank. "Danny could you please enter the camber and when I give the word I want you to gather energy around you. As much as you can." Ms. Richter instructed. Danny walked into the camber but was unsure what to do. Jazz had told him not to show his full strength in front of humans, but Ms. Richter seemed nice and he didn't think she would hurt him. In the end he decided that he would just gather a bit of energy.

But that plan quickly went to the wind as he started and the familiar feeling took over him. He gathered as much as he could in human form and then realized he wasn't instructed what to do with it. "Ms. Richter. What do you want me to do with the energy?" Danny asked as his entire body radiated with the gathered energy.

"Nothing Danny, you've done enough already." She said looking at her screens with a slack jawed stare. "Just let it all back out gently." Danny did what he was told and then was told to get out of the camber. "That was very good, Danny. It's your turn David." David stepped into the chamber. Danny was knocked back by the sheer volume of the power that came from David. It was on the same level as what he had sensed from Frostbite or Pandora. But it was short lived as David doubled over coughing. Ms. Richter immediately shut the thing down and went to check on David.

"Is he ok?" Danny asked. The Director nodded.

"He will be fine. He just exhausted himself." Ms. Richter sighed. "Danny, I think your games class will be starting soon. You go to class and I will see to David." Nodding Danny ran out the way that he had come.

Danny reached the athletic fields just as the rest of the students arrived. Mr. Renard was waiting for them and quickly directed the boys and girls into separate changing rooms. Danny was careful not to let the other see his bare back as he changed.

"You're so lucky, Danny." Max said in the locker room. "Edict was a disaster. Easily the worst class I've had all day."

"It wasn't that bad. You just lack a sense of the theatrics." Connor said grinning. "It's not the instructor's fault you smile as if you were… how did he put it… fighting off gas? I'm sure Danny-boy would be counted as a perfect gentleman." Everyone groaned with disgusted but Danny laughed.

Once they had gotten out onto the field they found Mr. Renard bouncing a soccer ball on his foot. He had the group divided up into two teams and sent them out onto the field. Danny thought that it was going to be a boring game of soccer, but once it started he was delighted to find that the field shifted and moved as the game progressed. Some areas rose or fell several feet in a matter of seconds.

Everyone was complaining about how impossible the game was, but Jazz and Danny were only slightly slowed by the bumps in the field. Danny could run forever without feeling tired and even if he wasn't the best soccer player, he could still make a clean pass. But Jazz began to see patterns in the motions of the field and predicted where the bumps would form. She used them to cut off opponents and to change the direction of her shots.

The end score was 7 – 0 with Jazz scoring five of the goals for their team and Danny getting the other two. "Isn't there anything that stops you two?" Jesse asked as his large form collapsed to the ground.

After the game Danny had yet to break a sweet and ran off to go feed Kurama as the rest of them dragged themselves slowly away.

"Director it's Annika." The aged Mystics instructor said from outside Ms. Richter's office.

"Come in." Ms. Richter said and Annika entered closing the door behind her. "Thank you for coming Annika, we need to take about some of our newest apprentices." Both Miss Boon and Mr. Renard were there in front of Ms. Richter's desk.

"So there is some truth to the signs of the return of the old magic." Annika said solemnly.

"We have two at least. Maybe four." Ms. Richter said pulling out the files on the students. "We have tested Daniel Fenton and David Menlo and confirmed that they have large stores of old magic." She showed the files on the two's tests in the Archives. "The unconfirmed ones are Daniel's elder sister Jasmine Fenton and Max McDaniels."

"Two children in one family?" Annika said in surprise.

"We did a back ground check. They aren't blood related, step siblings, both parents had nothing to do with our world as far as we can tell, but they both disappeared around two years ago without a trace." Ms. Richter said. "It is like some kind of fate brought them together… But that isn't what we are here to discuss. Read the energy fluctuation reports."

Annika glanced over the reading and then looked to the Director in shock. "Daniel Fenton can call on more mystical energy than almost anyone on our staff, and David Menlo can call on even more than him." Annika said as she put down the reports.

Ms. Richter nodded. "But the major difference between them is their bodies. David Menlo's body cannot handle the strain of his mystics. Daniel's body however is completely unaffected by the power he was holding onto, the human body was not made to wield such power, but if anything it is natural to him to have it gathered about and use it." Ms. Richter paused to let Annika process this before continuing. "That said, both will need special training classes for their Mystics."

"So who is going to train them?" Miss Boon sounded a little hopeful.

"I have given it some thought, and I think that we will have both of them go to the normal class and just watch the other students to gain the basic theory knowledge. Hazel, you will work with Danny after the normal school hours are over. He should be the easier of the two to handle since he is already used to controlling his mystical talents. I want to have Annika train with David Menlo during their Games class since his body is not well enough for those activities." The two nodded, even though Miss Boon looked a little disappointed. "Monsieur, what can you tell us about their physical condition?"

"It's only been the first day, Director. Even if the McDaniels boy shows promise, I will need more time to see if he is going to excel. But the Fenton siblings have already set themselves apart from the rest of the class." Renard said gruffly. "Jasmine has the highest muscle density in the class and it is clear that she is used to the regimented physical training. She also has adapted to our way of playing soccer quite quickly. She made five impressive goals and managed to predict the field's movement. Even if it was the lowest setting, it is more than I was expecting for the first month. I would consider bumping her up to train with the third years."

Ms. Richter nodded her head in approval. "Her brother, Daniel, though was more of a mystery. Half way through the morning warm up I saw him huffing and puffing and starting to slow down." Renard said with a frown.

"What is so mysterious about that?" Miss. Boon said with a light smile. "Some of our elder students still get tired. I can imagine that being smaller it would be even harder on him."

"He wasn't tired." Renard said shaking his head. "He was pretending to be tired so he wouldn't stick out to much from the class. The boy had been using body enhancing mystics the entire time… real advanced stuff mind you… probably wasn't even conscious of it himself. He was pulling in the energy from the air around him to fuel himself." The other faculty looked shocked. "That boy is as likely to tire himself out running laps as a fish is likely to drown in the ocean. But the boy was holding back and pretending to only be average. He said that his sister told him to do it in their last school."

"That is… more than we were expected. When I asked Daniel how long he had been able to access his mystics, he said that he started practicing with them after his fifth birthday. So we are looking at around three and a half years." Ms. Richter said looking around.

"In just three and a half years he has learned that level of control without professional instruction." Annika said nodding. "That is… very impressive… but not unimaginable."

"'Not unimaginable', I have never heard of anyone learning to fly without instruction." Miss Boon said shaking her head.

"He can fly!?" Annika asked wide eyed looking to her director.

Ms. Richter nodded. "He has mastered flight through mystics, as well as some other things, simply through instinct it seems." Annika was sent into slack-jawed silence.

"Back to the topic at hand, what are we going to do for their physical training then? It wouldn't be in the spirit of learning to hold them back with the other first years, but the practices with their groups are meant to teach them teamwork." Miss Boon said.

"Not much teamwork going on there." Renard scoffed. "Those two work together and run circles around the others. I would suggest that we move them up to the third years' groups for both training and games. Give them a bit more of a challenge and hopefully motivate some of the third years to work harder to not be shown up by the younger ones. Maybe even give the children early access to level 1 of The Course."

Ms. Richter sighed. "I am going to allow them into the third year train class for a trial run. But I think they are still too inexperienced for The Course. There is a reason we wait to the third year for students to have access to it."

"I still don't understand that reason." Renard grumbled. "And those two children took down over a half dozen Vyes by themselves. I think they got what it takes to be on level 4, maybe higher."

"We are not going to argue this again." Ms. Richter snapped. "The younger students and not emotionally mature enough for The Course. Now if you will excuse me, I need to get back to our missing Potentials. Hazel, I want you to draw up some new schedules for Daniel and Jasmine. Annika can you find some time to talk to David Menlo about his Mystics it would be greatly appreciated."

"Yes, Director." The women said and they all exited the room.

Danny had been a little late joining his classmates in the dining hall. Kurama had decided to grow a series of blackberry bushes inside of the Warming Lodge and Danny had had to dig them out and replant them outside. But before he sat down he spotted Sam again sitting on her own at the end of the second year's table.

Danny couldn't help but to think about his time on the bus back in Amity Park, so he walked nervously over to her. Conversation at the table stopped as Danny approached. "Um… hi Sam… do you want to come and sit with us? We got room at our table… and you shouldn't have to sit alone." Danny said a little unsure of himself.

Sam looked at him for a second as if not sure what to think. Then she just shrugged. "Why not?" She said simply and Danny grinned as she picked up her food and walked with Danny to the first year's table. Some of the second years glared at them as they went. Danny noticed that some of these students sported black eyes like Max's and realized that he had been the one to give it to them.

The other first years looked around a little wary after their last visit from second years landed them on a watery death trap. But Jazz closed her book and smiled over at the new comer. "Hello again Sam. I guess I didn't introduce myself last time. I'm Jasmine Fenton, but I prefer Jazz. I'm Danny's older sister." She said extending a hand in greeting. Sam smiled and accepted the hand shake. "Sorry if Danny's causing you any trouble. You'll find he is good at finding that kind of thing."

"That isn't true." Danny said in protest. "I never go looking for it. Trouble just finds me." Some of the other kids laughed. The spell was broken and they all started introducing themselves to Sam.

"Hey Sammy, is that all your going to eat?" Connor asked looking at the bean salad Sam had been eating.

"Two thing, call me Sammy again and you will be missing your classes tomorrow, and yes it is." Sam replied glaring at the boy.

"But… where's the meat? You can't possibly fuel yourself with just that salad." Connor said looking at the bowl with disapproval.

"I don't eat meat, I'm Vegan, meat is murder." Sam said glaring at Connor.

Danny eyes widened. "What do you mean?" He asked looking down at his own plate that still had some pork on it.

"I mean that innocent animals were killed so that people could eat meat. It was necessary in the past, but not anymore. We have healthier substitutes." Sam said looking down at Danny.

"Oh great. A tree hugger." Lucia said rolling her eyes.

"Tell me how there is a difference between you eating a chicken and Mum eating a little boy." Sam said sternly. "We are supposed to be setting a good example for the mystical creature. I am choosing to do that by following Bob's example and giving up on meat."

Most of the first years were still looking at her like she was crazy. "I never thought about it like that." Danny said softly before pushing his plate back and turning to Sam. "So how does this… Vegan thing work?" Several students tried to talk Danny out of it but were push aside by Sam who wore a grin of victory as she took Danny to talk to Bob about Danny's new eating habits.

"You do realize your brother has a crush on her right?" Connor said once they were in the kitchen.

"Yeah, I noticed." Jazz said once again in her book. "It's not that surprising that Danny developed a crush. It's pretty comment for boys his age to become infatuated with people who are different or remind them of their mother figure, and Sam is a bit of each of those things."

"But Sam is nothing like you." David joked.

"Ha ha." Jazz said flatly back.

"Well, you do act more like his mother than his older sister." Cynthia said giggling.

"I have to be. Our parents disappeared two years ago." Jazz said with a shrug. "We're the only real family we have. That's why Danny was allowed into Rowan, even though he is only eight years old."

The surrounding first years looked a little ashamed of their teasing. "Sorry." Max said after a small awkward silence. "My mom also disappeared two years ago, but I still had my dad."

Jazz shrugged again. "There isn't anything to be sorry for. It's no one's fault. Besides, we managed on our own." Jazz said turning the page in her book.

"That maybe. But no child should have to grow up as fast as the two of you must have had to." The students turned their head to see Miss. Boon coming up to them. "Hello Jasmine. I am supposed to give you and your brother some new schedules." She handed Jazz two new laminated sheets of paper, one with Danny's name on it and the other with hers. "Mr. Renard believes that you two would benefit from doing your morning exercises and the games with the third year students." She said smiling. Some of the other first years whispered, some with jealousy, but most who's body's were still sore pitied the brother and sister. "I am also been assigned to tutor your brother in Mystics, since the only reason his turn didn't end up like Mr. Menlo's was because your brother was holding back." Miss. Boon looked around. "Where is he?"

"He's in the kitchen talking to Bob about starting to eat Vegan." Jazz chuckled.

"Ah… Sam got to him." Miss. Boon nodded understandingly. "She is a… interesting girl." Giggles broke out around the table. Miss Boon then noticed what book Jazz was reading. "An Interrupters Guide to Visions, an interesting choice in reading materials."

"Well, I just wanted to get a better understanding of the events that happened leading up to my brother and I coming to Rowan." Jazz said the meaning of the words not lost of Miss. Boon.

"I am actually very interested in visions myself, but the unfortunate truth is that there has not been much research done on the subject." The Mystics instructor sighed. "It has been considered taboo to research them since before the founding of Rowan. I have tried to convince the Director to let me try, since I believe that since our visions were caused by our capacity for Mystics and that they could be used to predict what our specialties in Mystics might be. But she does not approve." Miss Boon smiled down at Jazz. "What have you managed to learn so far?"

Jazz smiled back. "That some visions can tell us about our blood history, or predict our future… or tell our past." She said thinking about Danny's vision. The similarities between Achilles and what happened to Danny on his fifth birthday were… eerie to say the least. "But they are usually hard to interpret unless they have specific events include in them. But the last recorded case of such a vision was over four hundred years ago."

"That is all true. It is good to see a young mind that it willing to look into such things. Though I doubt you shared everything you have learned." Miss Boon chuckled. "I have some books on the subject in my office if you would like to borrow some. I believe that most of the older books are not kept in Archives are at Rattle Rafters if you want to look there."

"Archives, Rattle Rafters?" Omar said curiously as the other students listened in.

"Sorry, I almost forgot that you all have not been at Rowan for more than a few days." Boon chuckled. "Rattle Rafters is a rather famous library on this campus that almost no one goes to even though it is open to everyone. It is one the top floor of Old Tom and the entire thing shakes every hour from the bell tower. The Archives on the hand are reserved for faculty and agents and contain resources that might be dangerous and need to be handled with care." Miss Boon explained. "But that is enough of that talk. I had just come here to deliver the schedules, I really must be going. Good luck with your homework everyone." Miss Boon waved goodbye to them as she made her exit.

"Doesn't everything on this campus fall under the banner of 'might be dangerous and need to be handled with care'?" Connor mumbled as Miss Boon moved away.

"I'm more worried about all the homework." Max groaned. "And I still need to take care of Nick to…" Everyone began to groan about their homework and everything went on as if they were at a normal boarding school. Jazz smiled as she saw Danny coming out of the kitchen with Sam. The boy was flushing bright red and looking at his feet.

"Not so bad, for our first real day of school." Jazz whispered to herself.


	9. Chapter 9

I own nothing, not the characters, the space where this story exists, or even the eyes that you are using to read it. This is for entertainment proposes only, no money involved.

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><p>"Kurama! Get back here!" Danny called out as he chased the flying Yoko through the thick brush. Usually Danny would have just flown after him and caught him but he wasn't alone. Over the period of five weeks since he had started at Rowan academy, he had started to spend more and more time with the Goth girl, Sam Manson, whether as Danny by day or as Phantom at night.<p>

Danny was fascinated with the girl. Her point of view was so different from the timeless spirits that he had spent most of his time with for the past years. She had the same nature as them though, so calm and gentle until opposition comes into the picture when she immediately becomes strong willed and determined. The entirety of his section teased him jokingly about it whenever they caught him looking at her, and their edict teacher, Sir Weasley, considered forcing him to ask her out as a form of example to the edict class.

Surprisingly though, even though it seemed like the entire campus, including most of the charges, knew that Danny had a crush on the girl, Sam didn't notice and thought of Danny as more of a little brother.

"Don't worry Danny, we'll get him." Sam laughed as she followed suit.

But their chase was cut off by a voice. "Kurama, come!" It commanded. The spirit fox paused in mid air and turned around to fly down to rest at the feet of Jazz. "Good boy, Kurama." She said petting the Yoko and handing it a blackberry.

"How come he listens to you but not to me?" Danny whined as he walked over to his sister. In the month that Danny had been the care taker for Kurama he had only warmed up to his sister and to Sam. Danny had showed them how he liked licking up the energy gathered through mystics and after they managed to copy him in forming it around their hands Kurama immediately began to trust them.

Danny had been teaching Jazz what he was learning about mystics in his private sessions with Miss. Boon. They did it in secret inside of Rattle Rafters. Danny would teach Jazz mystics in exchange for help on his homework.

"Simple, because I bothered to train him instead of just showering him with affection like you two do every minute." Jazz said smugly. "He only runs because he knows you will chase him. Now come on Danny, I want you to wash up before the school trip to town."

"Alright!" Danny said loudly before turning to Sam. "Are you going to go into town to?" He asked a little hopefully.

"No thanks. I don't really want anything there." Sam said with a shrug. "I think I will just hang out in the Sanctuary. You two have a good time."

"Oh… ok." Danny said a little disappointed. Then he started running off towards the Sanctuary's tunnel with Jazz walked steadily behind him.

Mr. Vincenti, Miss. Boon and the other advisers were already waiting out in the court yard by the front entrance when Danny and Jazz got there.

Mr. Vincenti spoke up as they set out for the gate to go to town. "Ah, exciting stuff, first trip to town and a beautiful full day to enjoy it. Did everyone bring some spending money and an appetite?" Most of the group screamed there affirmatives, but Danny and Jazz stayed silent.

Most of the family money that they had was set aside for college funds and to pay for FentonWorks. Jazz found that they had enough for such things but not much else. Not that they had ever gone into town back in Amity Park anyways.

There was the large sum of money that was left to them after the disappearance of Vlad Masters, but Jazz and Danny agreed to give it all away to charity. It was blood money that Vlad had accumulated from abusing his powers and ruining lives and they wanted nothing to do with it.

"Alright listen up. We have reservations for The Grove at seven and the food is excellent, so don't fill up on sweets. Make a point to introduce yourselves to the residents and shop keeper. They are well aware of what Rowan is all about. In fact, many are former students or family of the faculty. Be on your best behavior and make Sir Weasley proud." Mr. Vincenti said cocking a smile as the students cheered before dividing up and going to the different shops.

* * *

><p>Danny moved from house to house and quickly realizes that he would have rather stayed at Rowan with Sam. Granted the town did have a very interesting assortment of bookstores, art stores, and candy shops, but it didn't hold the uncertain wonder that came with not knowing if that sign was pointing you in the right direction or if it would sprout legs and move right after you pass it.<p>

Jazz had gone to the town library and spent her time checking if there were any titles in it that weren't in the school library on her favorite subject, Psychology. Jazz's love of it was what made her the best in their Strategies class, even if David was a close second.

Danny just went through the town introducing himself and asking if they had any pocket dimensions he could explore. The answer was always a sad no. After a few hours seven o'clock rolled around and Danny along with the rest of the students went to The Grove. Danny was glad to have an excuse to stop going from shop to shop. All the owners all reacted the same way to his young age.

All the students split up into their sections and followed their sections advisers into the house whose lower floor seemed to have been renovated to make room for several long dining tables. The room was well decorated and they all sat down at a table alternating between girls and boys again. Danny was between Jazz and Miss Boon with Max on the other side of Miss. Boon.

Mr. Vincenti stood up in front of everyone with a wine glass and said. "I would like to propose a toast." Other students lifted up their glasses but Danny just glared at his with mistrust until someone told him it just had apple juice in it. "To two months under the belt and young minds on the move." He said.

Glasses were clinked together and then Mr. Vincenti started to bring up the more member able thing that had happened and who was good at what. "Any mathematicians here today?" He asked and the students throughout either Jazz or David's name, except for Jesse how claimed his own. "Who's a wiz at science?" Everyone said Sara who blushed from the other side of Max. "Any budding ambassadors or diplomats?" Everyone screamed Connor's name. Connor pushed fake tears out of his eyes as he bowed with gratitude. "What about future agents?" Danny's name was shouted loudly to the puzzlement of the small boy. He had never really considered becoming an agent, he wanted to be an astronaut.

As Mr. Vincenti continued to list off the subjects, food was being brought out. Danny had kept at not eating meat anymore, though he figured he would when he went back home because of the Lunch Lady's Ghost, but did that really even count? After all, the point is not to eat anything that was taken at the expense of another living thing, but the Lunch Lady's Ghost conjured her food out of nothing.

Throughout the meal they were loud exchanges of stories and Lucia and Cynthia did a little skit of one of the times Connor had tried to impress the older girls. Danny laughed with the rest of them as Lucia sucked in her stomach and waddled about the room trying to lower her voice. But Danny hanged his head in embarrassment as they started one about him following about Sam, Cynthia did her best to appear small and follow the other girl around whimpering like an injured puppy. Even the normally stern Miss. Boon laughed at the display.

After about an hour the group laugher divided into several smaller conversations. Danny noticed the hostess whisper something in Mr. Vincenti ear from the other side of Jazz. The instructor got up and walked out into the hall in a hurry.

Once he was gone, Miss Boon turned to speak to Max. "You know, I happened to hear Nigel tell Miss. Richter that the tapestry you discovered involved the Cattle Raid of Cooley." She said quietly. But Danny and Jazz had still heard. Jazz concentrated to hear what they were talking about. Max nodded. "Have you taken the time to read up on the Cattle Raid or its hero Cuchulain?" She asked.

"No, Miss Boon I haven't had time." He said seemingly on the defensive about something.

"Listen to me Max." Miss Boon said sternly causing Max to look up at her nervously. "That vision was especially made for you. It is very important that you understand everything you can about its history and symbols…" Miss Boon said.

Danny and Jazz had both talked to Miss. Boon about their visions before, so they weren't surprised to find she was asking Max about his. Jazz was more interested about why Max would have that particular vision, and what that meant for the missing children's case. So far as she new, only Danny, Max and herself had escaped capture when targeted, and the nature of Danny's vision, the fact that it was dark instead of pleasant caught their attention.

But before anything could get any further Mr. Vincenti came back in a look of urgency on his face. "We have a change of plans! I need everyone to stop what you are doing and follow me, quickly!" He said above the children's voices. His actions reminded Danny and Jazz of the actions the teachers took right after receiving word about a nearby ghost attack.

"But Mr. Vincenti you have to see what Omar can do with his…" Connor started but Mr. Vincenti cut him off.

"Right now!" He shouted and started to physically pull students out of their seats. They were rushed outside and into black limos with stained windows before being driven out into the town. Danny and Jazz were rather calm since they had been through such things before. But the other students were muttering in fear as they saw the darkened windows of the surrounding housed.

The students were thrown about in the back of the car as it took the final turn onto the Rowan campus. Danny was shoved out of the car and hurried along towards the Manse. As they went they saw an extremely serious Nolan giving instructions to other faculty members who were spreading out with lanterns and YaYa came close so that Nolan could climb on her back. All signs of age and gentleness were gone from the Ki-rin as YaYa ran off into the forest.

Danny was pushed inside the Manse and told to lock himself in his room by the older students. As Danny closed the door behind him he looked around and sighed. "Might as well get my homework done." He said not at all scared of the emergency that seemed to have gripped the campus. Danny went up to his clock tower room and pulled out his Strategies book and was reading it about the important of knowing where your teammates were at all times.

He was thinking that it was obvious and wasn't really paying that much attention until it asked him to name off where his team was. "Well Jazz is in her room with Lucia and Cynthia. David and Max are across the hall in their room and Connor is in there with them. Sam is probably in her roo… no… wait she was in the Sanctuary… she probably wouldn't know there was an emergency…" Then Danny's eyes widened. "Oh…"

The white ring passed over his body and changed him into Phantom. Passing through the floor and rushed out through the door, turning invisible as he went. Danny turned his head and saw some of the first and second years gathered around a window that overlooked the campus. Danny flew over their heads and outside.

He flew straight for the Sanctuary but before he got their Sam came running out of it with the small Monsoon Tiger, Clifford, in her arms, and a Vye right on her heels.

"You will have to run faster than that little girl." The Vye taunted as it played with Sam. "A hostage like you will be very usual." Danny remembered what Jazz had told him she read about Vyes working in pairs. Danny looked around and spotted what he was expecting. In a tree right in the path of where Sam was running was another Vye.

As Sam run underneath the tree the second Vye jumped out at her. Sam fell to the ground screaming and did her best to shield the small tiger with her body as the monstrous creature fell down towards her.

Danny's fist connected with the Vye face in midair and sent it flying off and back through the tree it had jumped out of. The tree fell down over the crumpled form of the Vye. Hearing the falling tree Sam turned her head to see Danny flouting over her protectively.

"Phantom?" She said with a mixture of relief and shock.

Danny turned his head to glance at her over his shoulder to make sure she was ok. He let out a sigh of relief to find that there wasn't a scratch on her. "Sam… you might want to cover your eyes." Danny said slowly as he turned back to the Vye that had been chasing her. "Clifford's too." He said as he raised a fist in front of him with the palm pointing up. The hand began to glow bright green and Sam did as she was told.

The Vye was looking at the fallen tree in mute shock. "Solas…" Danny whispered as he opened his hand. There was a popping sound as the energy Danny had built up in his hand pushed out and created a flash of light that illuminated the entire campus. The Vye fell over screaming in pain as it clutched at it's now blinded eyes. It cursed and rived but it was no longer a threat. "You ok, Sam?" Danny asked in concern.

"I'm… I'm alright… thanks." Sam said moving some hair out of her eyes and blinking rapidly. "That was… some light show. You ok Clifford?" She asked the baby tiger who gave off a low meow.

Danny could hear the sounds of the faculty that had been combing the campus approaching with tracking animals and lanterns. Turning his head he could see the dozens of small lights being drawn to the spot where his flare had been. "It looks like everything's going to be ok." Danny said with a grin. "Time for me to make an exit. See you later Sam." He said flouting up into the air before turning invisible and flying back to the Manse but not before the faculty had spotted him and recognized him from the incident with the Kestrel.

When Danny arrived back at his room he lifted back up the book on strategy and reopened it. "Maybe I should pay more attention in that class." Danny fell asleep with the book covering his face.

* * *

><p>Hours later there was a knock on Danny's door. It took a while for Danny to notice it but soon the sound was reverberating through the crystal cathedral.<p>

Danny flouted through his floor and down to the door. Not really scared that anything was still around Danny opened the door. "Hello." He yawned rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. Mr. Vincenti was standing in the doorway in front of him.

"The danger has passed. Ms. Richter would like all the students to gather in the orchard. It's chilly out so… never mind you'll be fine." Mr. Vincenti shivered as a gust of arctic air left Danny's room and blew past him lowering the hallways temperate by several degrees. Danny stretched and tried to rub the sleep out of his eyes as he walked down to the orchard. He didn't notice until he was already outside that he was still in his pajamas. The atmosphere was so thick with worry that Danny's bright blue pajamas with smiling stars and moons that glowed in the dark went completely unnoticed.

Ms. Richter was standing in front of the trees and several faculty members were standing behind her. After the Manse had emptied and assembled in the front of her Ms Richter began to speak. "Students, we have had a loss. Another golden apple graces this orchard, all too prematurely I am afraid." Danny head shot up and his quickly searched the crowd of students with his eyes, quickly spotting Sam and his sister. Danny gave a sigh of relief before immediately feeling guilty for doing so. The other students had been scanning the ranks of the faculty for a missing teacher.

The Director shook her head. "No, the loss did not accrue on this campus. We lost a member of our recruiting staff. Ms. Isabel May, who many of you undoubtedly met during your tests for admits here." There was a painful silence that cut at the students. With a heavy expression Ms. Richter continued. "We do not as of yet know what happened to Ms. May. She had disappeared one week ago and we have been unable to get into contact her despite our best efforts. We have been monitoring her class tree anxiously throughout. Mr. Morrow made the unfortunate discovery before dinner last night. Ms. May's apple has turned to gold."

Several students hugged on and other or broke down into sobs. Danny could see Lucia whipping tears from her eyes and figured that Ms. May must have been the one that recruited her. Ms. Richter hushed the crowd with a wave of her hand. "Shortly after we lost Ms. May, something triggered the defenses of this campus. While I am sorry if our actions confused or frightened you, they were necessary percussions. For the first time in Rowan history, this campus has been penetrated by Agents of the Enemy." A collective shiver passed through the student body. "They are gone now." Ms. Richter assured the students. "And you can be sure that we are using all of our resources to determine exactly what has happened here tonight and to insure your future safety. But for now no student is to leave this campus for any reason with no exceptions. Failure to mind this rule will result in expulsion. Is that clear?"

Most of the students nodded saying, "Yes director."

Jazz stifled a chuckled as she and Sam had found their way to Danny. "That makes sense. We can only protect you if you stay on campus so if you leave we won't let you back in." She whispered so that only Danny and Sam could hear her.

"It isn't like there was anything to do in town anyways." Danny muttered back. Sam chuckled but she was giving Danny a knowing look that was different from before.

An older girl raised her hand. "How could they be here? I thought Rowan was protected from the Enemy. What does this mean?"

"It means that we have entered a time of danger." Ms. Richter said sharply.

Murmurs were running through the crowd but then Connor's voice could be heard. "What about that boy, the flying one in the white hoodie? What is he?"

Ms. Richter looked over at the group of first years who were all nodding. "It seems some of our younger students didn't listen to instructions about staying locked in their rooms." She said and the students looked a little sheepish. "But to answer your question… we don't know. But his presence has not set off any of Rowan's defenses so we do not believe he is with the enemy. We do have… theories… and suspect that he is a young steward that has found his way to Rowan to help it in its darkest of times."

Excited whispers shot through the student body, the fear of a few seconds ago seemed lost in the wake of these words. Jazz had to hold back a laugh at what the words implied. They thought that the Phantom, her little brother, was a god.


	10. Chapter 10

I own nothing, not the characters, the space where this story exists, or even the eyes that you are using to read it. This is for entertainment proposes only, no money involved.

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><p>Over the following weeks the students were required to go around in pairs, much to the frustration of Sam how snuck out whenever she could to go alone to the Sanctuary. The faculty and older students volunteered for patrols and as escorts for the younger students.<p>

Several agents showed up at Rowan seemingly overnight. The students were told that they were there for their safety but that they were not to be approached or bothered. Most of the students were afraid of the agents, especially Cooper with his heavily burned face and black ski cap and it had become a kind of dare among them to walk past him at night while he was making his rounds with his lantern.

This made them all the more ashamed when Danny and Jazz went up and talked to these people with smiling faces and acting as if they were only ordinary people. Seeing how Danny was acting around Cooper, Sir Weasley gave him extra credit for his edict class.

Two weeks into the new way of things Danny and Jazz were working in a study group along with David, Max, Connor, Cynthia and Lucia. Even with everything that had happened, the faculty decided that they would still have the semester midterms the same as usual, and Danny was struggling with all the names of the different Greek gods and heroes and always glared with disgust every time he came across a question about Pandora. The legend of Pandora didn't do his aunt justice if you asked him.

But another name also stuck out to him, though he didn't understand why. Prometheus, the Titan of foresight, who was said to have given fire to man and damned for doing it. The more he read about the rule breaking trickster god the more he pitied him, after all, Prometheus was only trying to help protect humanity from the tyranny of the other Greek gods and goddesses. The unfortunate god was strapped to a stone cliff and left to have his innards eaten out by vultures for all of eternity because he gave fire to mankind so that they could protect themselves. Danny could feel somewhere inside him that the fire that the legends spoke of was the same spark that gave them their mystics.

Danny skimmed though the legends that were told about Prometheus looking for some salvation to the poor Titan's plight. He finally found one in which a Greek hero descended into the underworld and freed Prometheus from his suffering. Danny was surprised to find that the hero was Achilles.

Max on the other hand was struggling through his math test booklet and groaned when he reached the end only to find that only half of his answers fit what was in the master key. He looked at the clock which read ten thirty and started to pack up his stuff.

David looked over his book at Max. "You heading out?" He asked. David and Jazz were both reading casually instead of studying for their tests. They were both the best in the classes and everyone was just glad they came to the study session to answer their questions.

"Yeah, I got to feed Nick." Max said as he slung his backpack over one shoulder.

"You should get an escort to go with you." David said returning to his book.

"I'll go with you." Sara said getting up and smiling at Max. Everyone but Danny and Max gave a knowing smile.

"Can I go to?" Danny asked grinning.

"No!" Jazz said sharply and then hesitated. "Kurama is already asleep and it's already past your bed time." She added. Danny grumbled a little.

"Just let me get my coat." Sara said and stepped out of the room to go and grab a jacket for the autumn night air. Connor giggles and David struggled to pretend he was still just reading. Cynthia hadn't even noticed that her book was now upside down as she whispered with Lucia.

"What are you all snickering about?" Max said confused.

"Come on Max, she likes you." Connor said rolling his eyes.

"Wait, she does?" Danny said in surprise and the girls all chuckled at his ignorance.

"No she doesn't." Max said defensively.

"Sure she does." Cynthia chuckled. "That's why she sits next to you in every class and always picks you first during the games. She's only slightly less obvious about it than Danny is about his crush on Sam."

Danny blushed and his head dropped. "Can we please stop pointing that out all the time?" He mumbled to the delight of everyone but Max who was too distracted by his current predicament.

Then Lucia started talking. Lucia had gotten used to speaking in English but Danny found it exhausting to listen to her at the sheer rate that she talked. And apparently so did Max because he stopped her and asked her to go back. "What was that about the festival?" He asked.

Lucia glared. "I said that Sara is too good for you and that you are very lucky to be going her to the Halloween festival with her."

Max's eyes widened and he through a glance over towards the door. "What are you talking about… Sara is going to ask me to be her date for Halloween?" He said in a slight panic.

"Of course not silly." Cynthia said and Max gave a sigh of relief. "Sara is way too old fashioned for that. She will simply let you know that she wants you to ask her."

"But…" Max stopped as Sara re-entered the room with her coat.

"Are you ready?" Sara asked as she walked to the door to the orchard. Connor chuckled as Max silently nodded and followed her outside. Once the door closed behind them Danny turned to his sister.

"So… do I really have to go to sleep right now?" Danny asked. Jazz gave him a look and he sighed before dropping his books into his bag that he had expanded using Mystics as soon as he found the book on how to. Throwing the backpack over his schooler he climbed the stairs up towards his room.

He flew up to the clock tower and was thinking about the Halloween Dance. Danny went to his writing table and pulled out a piece of paper. Writing a quick message he pushed it into an envelope and then put the envelope in an empty cardboard box, one of many that he had saved from when the older students had came back to campus. Then he waved his hand and a small green portal appeared in the air and he pushed the box through before it closed. He knew that Uncle Boxy would find it and that he would deliver the letter for him. He yawned felling tired from his day of studying so he climbed into the open coffin and went to sleep.

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><p>Three days later on a Saturday Danny went down the stairs in his normal t-shirt and blue jeans that he wore whenever he didn't have to wear the school uniform that he felt made him look like an idiot. All of the students in his section were whispering excitedly about the visit that was scheduled that day to go to The Course. The Course had usually been reserved for only third years and up but the resent events had called for a change in the rules.<p>

After hearing about Ms. Richter's decision, Bob started to pile extra food onto the first years' plates and ignored any protests. Not that Danny ever really protested. The other students were wondering just how much the boy could eat.

Max had just managed to get way with only a bowl of cereal and came over to the table. Lucia glared at him the moment he sat down. Max had not taken Sara's hints that she wanted him to ask her to the dance. And ever seen then most of the girls gave him cold glares whenever he entered the room. Sara herself still seemed friendly but less outgoing than she used to be.

Finally Max sighed and got up and walked slowly over to Sara who put down her spoon. "Sara." Max started as if he didn't have a clue how to do this. Everyone at the table had stopped talking to watch. "Would you go to the All Hallows Eve dance with me?" He finally said.

The table burst into whistles and cheers. Sara smiled but kept her cool. "Thank you for the invitation Max, I will… consider it." She said.

"Ok." Max mumbled and walked back to his seat as some of the guys gave him pats on the back as he went. He sat down and looked at Lucia. "Am I out of everybody's dog house now?"

Lucia scoffed. "You might be out of there, but not mine. If anything that was even worse, asking a girl out to prove a point, and in front of everyone to." She said angrily.

"Wait… so he couldn't win… I don't understand girls." Danny said before taking a bite out of his toast.

"Danny-boy, no one understands girls, not even girls." Connor said patting him on the back. "But since Max went out and asked Sara, are you going to ask someone." He said his eyes shifting towards Sam. Danny didn't notice.

"I already have." He said taking another bite out of his toast. The table went silent to the point that Danny's bites sounded like bomb shells. Danny and Sam looked around not understanding what was going on. "What?" Danny asked.

"So you… who did you ask?" Cynthia said giggling as she glanced at Sam. "Did she say yes?"

"I asked someone from back home, Dora." Danny said. "And yes, she's coming."

Jazz broke out laughing as the students were stunned into silence. "It's tradition that we always invite Dora to any party. She gets really upset if no one invites her." Jazz pulled out the laptop that they still had from home and opened up a picture of Dora. "Here's a picture of her from the Christmas party last year." Jazz said.

The first years' jaws dropped. "Wow…" Connor said slowly. "She is stunning." Dora was in a white dress that seemed to flow naturally with her pale skin, her straw blond hair was done in one long braid over her shoulder and she was smiling softly at the camera with her bright amber eyes. She looked to the world like a normal thirteen year old girl. No one would have guessed that she was a forty foot ghost dragon. Connor leaned over to Danny. "Trying to make Sam jealous are you?" Connor said with a grin. Danny flushed and shook his head.

Breakfast went on. Sam had left to see to her charge since her section of second years would be visiting The Course before Danny's group. Danny left with her to go and tend to Kurama just as Connor came screaming out of the kitchen running from Mum who was trying to force him to be her date to the dance.

Danny was feeding Kurama his daily helping of berries while Sam gave her Forest Sprite some water and dried leafs. "Danny…" Sam said slowly. Danny looked up to see her looking at him. "I just wanted to say… thanks for saving me from those wolf things." She said with a smile. Before turning her head back to her charge.

Danny smiled back. Then he realized what she was implying. "I um… don't know what you're talking about." Danny said glancing around.

"Danny please, we're friends." Sam said calmly. "I won't tell anyone."

Danny sighed. "How long have you…"

"I guessed within the first week. It isn't like there are a lot of people your size around Rowan. Seeing your apple helped." Sam said with a shrug. "I assumed that you would tell me when you're ready but… I guess I just want you to know that you don't have to be afraid of telling me."

"Thanks…" Danny whispered looking down so she couldn't see the tears in his eyes. "Thank you." He said a little louder.

Sam reached up and ruffled his hair. "We'll always be friends, Danny. You don't have to be worried about something as silly as this." Sam said laughing. "Danny Phantom. Now that has a ring to it. Now come on we should get back to the Manse before everyone heads out without us."

They started walking out of the Sanctuary. "So… are you really a Steward?" Sam asked curiously.

"I don't know." Danny said with a shrug. "I don't even really understand to well what a Steward even is. They say that they were like gods, but I don't know what a god is like either." Sam laughed and Danny blushed. He was glad she had figured it out and still wanted to be his friend.

* * *

><p>Jazz was a mixture of frightened and relieved when Danny told her that Sam had figured out that he was Phantom. But she assured Danny that it wasn't his fault and that he had done nothing wrong. Jazz didn't think that Sam would do anything that would hurt Danny in the long run.<p>

Their group all arrived outside of the Smithy's doorstep a few minutes before they had been scheduled to go in. The door opened and Ms. Boon and Mr. Vincenti were standing there with a stack of blue binders that were labeled, 'The Course, Operations Manual'.

Mr. Vincenti looked over the group. "Good good, everyone's here, let's get started. Welcome to my neck of the woods, my beloved Smithy. Let's get you inside." He said and motioned for the students to move into the Smithy. "It goes without saying that you will not touch anything in here. Your key cards and pin numbers are enclosed in your binders. Now here we go." They walked down a long entry hallway with a large mental door with a keypad on one side and a large elevator at the end of the hall.

Then Ms. Boon handed out the binders. "That door leads to the workshop. No reason for you to be there until you take Devises in your third year. This elevator is what you want. It will take you down to the courses main level. In you go." Mr. Vincenti said pushing the students into the elevator. The elevator probably had mystics done on it to expand the inside. "Hold on tight." The instructor muttered as the elevator quickly accelerated downwards. Most of the students closed their eyes against the queasiness as they plummeted downwards. But Danny and Jazz merely granted slightly.

Soon the elevator came to a stop and the doors opened into a large octagonal room with a high ceiling and walls of polished granite. On the opposite wall was another elevator that had the Rowan seal on its brass door.

Danny wondered around and looked at several old looking objects in glass cases that were in the room. Danny stopped in front of one and his eyes widened. "Jazz come look! This gauntlet, it looks just like Uncle Frost's!" He shouted back to his sister.

Jazz came up beside him and looked over his shoulder gasping in surprise. In the case was a large battered gauntlet that was made for a hand much larger than your average mans. It was the left handed gauntlet. "I don't believe it…" Jazz thought as she looked at the plaque next to the display that read 'The Gauntlet of Beowulf, awarded for courage' followed by a list of names of people who had been awarded it. It looked identical to a right-handed one that Frostbite had kept in his trophy room. "Uncle Frost never told us how he lost his arm."

"Let me show you my favorite." Miss. Boon said with a smile as she led Danny and Jazz along with Max who had been nearby, to the next display. It was a charred and blackened stone. "This is the Founder's Stone. It is a corner piece of our last school and was retrieved by the refuges that fled there at great cost. Were the other awards are given to students that show one quality, the Founder's Stone is given to that rare student that personifies many."

"Wow." Jazz said shortly though her thoughts were still on the Gauntlet. She became more interested however when she spotted the last name on the much shorter list of recipients. "Ms. Richter was the last one to win it." She said with a smile.

"Yes. Ms. Richter was an outstanding student and agent before she became Director." Miss Boon said a bit of admiration in her voice.

They then wondered over to David how was staring at a golden apple that was in another case. "Bram's apple, awarded for sacrifice." David read. "Elias Bram, he's the one that sacrificed himself against Astaroth, so that others could flee." Jazz looked down at her younger brother's lower back, as if she could see through the shirt to the scars his fight had left. The fight that drained him of his life-force. The fight that nearly killed him. "He was the last Ascendant." David said sadly.

"That's right David." Miss. Boon said quietly.

"Miss. Boon, what is an Ascendant?" Max asked.

She looked down at Max but her eyes seemed to glance at Danny and David. "An Ascendant is every rare Max, especially in the last millennium. Our long departed Bram was the last we know of for certain. Ascendant's had great stores of the old magic in them, they were very powerful." Miss Boon explained. Danny was absent mindedly kicking his feet against the ground. He had already heard this. Ms. Richter told him it when she asked him to keep quiet about his old magic from everyone but his sister who he refused to keep secrets from. They believed that David was an Ascendant, and that Danny might also be one to.

"Alright children gather up." Mr. Vincenti called out. "Well now you know why our older students try so hard. They all want to win one of those awards, never won one myself. You win one of those awards, and you've done something." Mr. Vincenti said and grinned at Miss. Boon. "Isn't that right, Miss Boon? Don't let her modesty fool you kids. She won two awards during her time here at Rowan. What were they again?" He asked acting as if he didn't already know.

Miss. Boon flushed. "Macon's quill… twice."

"Well, as your adviser I selfishly hope that there are some awards in store for all of you." Mr. Vincenti grinned. "But we didn't come here to appreciate museum pieces. We're here because the Director believes that your safety requires The Course." The class's whispers stopped. "The Course is a training tool. It is designed to apply and build upon the skills that you have acquired in the classroom." Mr. Vincenti led them to the other elevator door. "You are granted access only to those levels and settings commensurate with your skills. As you improve you can pass on to new scenarios and stiffer challenges."

Rolf raised his hand. "What kind of scenarios do we have?" He asked.

"The scenarios you encounter are dependent on various inputs." Mr. Vincenti shrugged. "The most important input is the floor you choose here in the elevator. The floor indicates the difficulty level, and at Rowan we have nine. Very few progress beyond level six. Once you are on the appropriate floor you can program up any number of scenarios variables; environment, objectives, opponents, etc. The possibilities are endless."

"Cool." Muttered Connor.

"After each scenario you complete you will receive a score based on your performance." Mr. Vincenti said. "That score is calculated from various factors; strategic approach, objectives achieved, time elapsed, and such. Scores range from zero to one hundred. Score above a seventy and the analysts might store your performance in the Archives and use you as an example in the screening room."

Mr. Vincenti paused as the elevator doors opened. Several sweaty students stumbled out of the elevator, followed by Cooper who was breathing heavily. "Ah, as you can see The Course is a busy place. Students, faculty, and alumni can use it at any time. How did it go ladies and gentlemen?"

"We got creamed." Moaned a boy among a group of third years, Danny recognized him as Matt, a boy in his Games class. "Level three is a killer, they got us right before we solved the Mayan puzzle. We couldn't even use Mystics!"

"How about you, Cooper?" Vincenti asked smiling. "Haven't seen you down here in years, good to have you back."

The agent just nodded in greeting before looking at Danny and Jazz. "Just practicing until you arrived. I have been instructed to take Daniel and Jasmine Fenton off our hands for the morning." He said in his gruff voice.

"Well… we were going to be showing them the Cours…" Mr. Vincenti started but Cooper cut him off.

"I will show them The Course." Cooper said seriously and motioned for Danny and Jazz to step out of the group.

As they moved towards the display cases to talk Danny could hear one of the other students say. "He went down to level eight. I asked one of the analysts, she said he got like a 75."

"Well, what do you expect from one of our finest agents?" Mr. Vincenti said. The students from the elevator went to the elevator to go back to the ground level will Danny and Jazz's class went into the elevator to go down to the scenario rooms.

Only once they were alone did they talk. "I have been instructed to take the two of you to level six so we can get a true test of your abilities." Cooper said his face remaining expressionless.

"But I thought we had to climb the ranks or something?" Jazz said a little confused.

"We've changed it so that your IDs will allow you to go down to the sixth floor." Cooper responded. "It was decided that after your performance against the Vyes level one though five would be far too easy for the two of you." Cooper seemed to cock a smile. "Don't worry. You will do fine and there are no consequences for failure here."

Danny and Jazz exchanged looks. "Ok then, I guess." Jazz said and they followed Cooper to the elevator again and Cooper punched the number six.

"Now then." Cooper said as the doors opened. "Let's get started."

* * *

><p>Thirty minutes later Cooper entered the screening room where the rest of Danny and Jazz's section were sitting in front of a monitor watching a video of Sara's first attempt in a level one scenario that involved moving across a room with conveyer belt floors while dodging balls.<p>

Mr. Vincenti was congratulating her on scoring an eleven and assured her that it was pretty good for a first attempt. Then he spotted Cooper walking towards them and his jaw dropped. The other first years around them followed his gaze and then started to murmur loud enough to get the attention of Sam's section of second years and some other people who had been visiting The Course.

Cooper was carrying the two sweating and panting forms of Danny and Jazz Fenton. He placed them down on benches near there group and pulled out some bottles of water. "Cooper, what happened?" Mr. Vincenti said wide eyed. No one had seen Danny some much as pant for real, so to see him sweating gallons of water was frightening to some of the children.

"I was showing them The Course." Cooper said simple.

Before Mr. Vincenti could say anything else the elevator doors opened and Ms. Richter entered the room. "What is the meaning of this, Cooper!?" She shouted furiously as she approached. "Why did I get a message that the Fenton siblings were doing the level six, death's grasp, endless hordes scenario with all known enemies turned on and that you unlocked it for them?"

Miss. Boon and Mr. Vincenti looked shocked. Cooper dipped his head respectfully towards Ms. Richter but didn't offer any explanation.

"I ordered him to, Gabrielle." A man said from the far side of the room. He was a tall formidable-looking man with silver hair and flat black eyes.

Ms. Richter turned to the man. "Commander Vilyak, what are you doing here?"

"I heard from some of our agents about two rather promising apprentices and wanted to see what they could do." Vilyak said with a slight bow. "I did not mean any harm."

"You mean you came looking for future agents." Ms. Richter said angrily. "We do not send children into those kinds of simulations. Rowan was founded to teach our children to do the best that they can, not to breed soldiers."

"Now don't say that. Not before seeing how they did." Vilyak said smoothly as he walked up to a control panel and punched in some keys. The main projector hummed to life and displayed the information on the scenario and the score they got.

"I don't believe it." Mr. Vincenti muttered as the room erupted in whispers. "They scored a ninety one. That was a simulation that was designed to be next to impossible, and they got a ninety one."

"Why don't we watch how it went?" Vilyak said before pressing a play button.

* * *

><p>A video showed Danny and Jazz exiting a cave, the mouth of the cave turned into a see through red wall behind them. There were two timers over the entrance, one on top of the other, and they both read zeros. They were standing in a large semicircular clearing that had a wall of trees standing around fifty feet away from their position.<p>

"In this scenario you are to guard that cave enters from waves of enemies that will be taken at random from the Rowan book of known enemy, with the frequency of each type determined by their frequency in the field." Coopers voice said from over an intercom. "After the scenario starts you will have one minute until the first wave. After that, waves will be appear every thirty seconds regardless whether or not you have beaten the earlier waves. The air around you is being jammed for Mystic energy so you will not be able to draw energy from the air easily. You are permitted weapons, what weapons do you want."

"I would like a double headed spear, four and a half feet in length, and some claws, blades on sides rather than from the knuckles." Danny said sounding like a kid at a candy store. A pedestal appeared with the asked for claws on it and the spear leaning against it. He picked them up and tested the weight of the spear and spinning it around.

"I need a left handed sturdy broad sword, two and a half feet in length and a right handed rotated kite shield." The weapons appeared. "I don't suppose you would give me a gun would you?"

"Fire arms are not permitted in this scenario." Cooper's voice said flatly.

"Well, we will need something for airborne enemy, so how about a crossbow?" Jazz asked. The weapon appeared next to the shield. It was a large cross with brass locks. Jazz picked it up and check it. "I need something a little lighter, we need speed and accuracy. This model is better for range and power." Jazz said. The crossbow disappeared and was replaced by two smaller ones and a quiver of silvery bolts. "That should be good." Jazz said confidently.

"Then the countdown begins to the start of the scenario." Cooper said. The two clocks above the cave entrance started counting the top one down from one minute and the bottom one starting to count up.

Jazz turned to Danny. "We will need something for field advantage. They haven't given us much to work with though." She said looking at the completely flat clearing with nothing that could be easily moved. "He said that energy will be hard to pull in so you won't be able to just overcome everything with Mystics, but if we can freeze some of the ground to get rid of the enemies footing we can get a leg up." Jazz said. "Do you think you can do it?"

Danny walked forward and placed his hand on the rock ground. "I can still lower the temperature without costing me any energy, but there isn't any grass for me to get moisture from. It will take a bit of energy to get the water I need for the ice out of the air." Danny said looking over at his sister.

"How much?" She asked as she checked her shield's straps.

"I don't know, about five percent of my reserves. I can still pull in a little energy here, but it would take a while to replace what I would be using." Danny said with a shrug.

"Yeah, I noticed that there is still some energy in the air that can be used." Jazz agreed then scratched her chin. "I think you should do it. It will be a good investment of energy." Jazz said. Danny nodded and placed the claws on a belt he was wearing. "Make another semicircle fifteen feet out from the cave entrance. That should give us another room to move without making holes between us that they can slip through." Jazz instructed.

Danny walked out and placed one hand on the ground. He moved the other hand and said some words and ice began to form and spread out in front of them until there was the semicircle of ice that Jazz had asked for, six feet wide and completely flat and slick.

"Not much of a barricade, but it will have to do." Danny said as he got up and claimed his spear. Just then a buzzer sounded as the top clock hit zero before being set to thirty seconds. Danny took up a position next to his sister and brought up his spear as three four armed masked creatures wielding clubs ran towards them from out of the trees.

The Oni slowed as they reached the ice but one attempted to jump over it only to be slashed across the check by Danny's spear and fall to the ground before disappearing. Another took more tentative steps and swung its club and Jazz who easily parried with her sword before sliding forward and bring up the edge of her shield cutting across the creatures body. The third tried to move in and attacked Jazz as its predecessor disappeared only for her to deflect the club with her shield will Danny got him in the neck with his spear.

"This isn't so bad." Danny said with a shrug.

"Don't jinx it, Danny." Jazz said as the last body disappeared. The buzzer went off again. This time two Vyes came out of the forest. "This isn't over yet."

* * *

><p>Fifteen minutes into the scenario and both Fenton sibling were panting heavily having just taken down a dozen reptilian crows the size of large dogs. So far they had gone through twenty nine waves of enemy, the hardest of which was a group of three golems that had taken the siblings over two minutes to beat and they had to fight off the other creatures that were materializing will they did it. It wasn't until Jazz realized that they were powered by mystics and that they couldn't have been drawing in energy from the air that they final got them by having Danny drain them like batteries. But the golems had broken Danny's spear and Jazz had used up the last of the crossbow bolts on the birds.<p>

"I don't… I don't know how much longer I can keep this up." Jazz panted.

"I've… I've got a little left." Danny said standing up straight but his knees were shaking.

The buzzer went off signaling the next enemy. Jazz steadied herself when a man whose body was completely covered in fire stepped out of the forest. The siblings felt shivers go up their spines as the thing screamed as if in pain from its own flames.

"Danny… I think we need your Mystics now." Jazz said staring at the thing with wide eyes.

Danny nodded and moved his hands giving a sharp command that should have been able to put out any fire. The fire on the things body flickered and shifted but didn't die. It gave another scream of pain and the fire grew. It then raised its arms and sent a torrent of fire at the siblings.

"Danny behind me!" Jazz said quickly pulling up her shield. "Shelra!" She shouted as Danny got behind her. Out of the shield came ripples of light that the fire seemed to get caught in and followed backwards to the wall behind them. The fire had been so hot that it melted the frozen ground as it passed. Jazz dropped to one knee panting. She had been storing up the energy she was gathering from her surrounding inside of her shield in order to use that one spell, but it still took her own energy to activate it and left her completely drained. "Danny… you got any tricks?" She asked.

Danny was gasping from his own earlier attempt to put out the flames. "No." He said simply.

Jazz looked around them and saw the fire from the monsters attack, it was burning on solid rock. "Danny… this fire is Mystical… can you… use it?" She asked.

Danny looked around himself and shrugged. "I can try." He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. The red and orange flames started to be drawn to him and they turned green and blue as they approach. Danny's body glowed with the energy he had pulled in from around him.

The creature screamed again and sent another wave off fire at them. "Avarinza Traos!" A wave of Danny's icy blue light rushed towards the creature. As it went, the light turned the ground under it into solid ice before it hit the fire spout dead on and dissipated the fire. It pushed onwards until it came into contact with the fiery monster, freezing it were it stood in the middle of one final scream. The creature disappeared leaving no trace just like the others.

"That was… tough." Jazz said slowly. Danny collapsed onto the ground next to her. "Danny, are you ok?" He turned his head and gave her a look. "Sorry, stander question." She said with a shrug. The buzzer went off again. Jazz turned her head and looked at the woods wondering what was next. "Oh fudge." She said softly as half a dozen twelve foot tall creatures came out of the forest. Despite their unkempt appearances and their rags for clothes Jazz could still she what they were because of their lumpy texture of their yellow skin. "Ogres."

The ogres quickly made their way over the large quantity of ice had been created by Danny's last effort. They were completely unhindered by it since they were native to Siberia. Danny tried to push himself to his feet but only managed a kneeling position. Jazz was supporting herself by using her sword as a crutch.

The ogres were on them in seconds and Jazz barely had the strength to lift her shield as the first ogre swung a massive club at her. He was knocked aside and a red x appeared over her. Danny tried to throw himself at the ogre but fell short and just landed on the ground. The ogre kicked him aside and an x appeared over him as well. Then the group of ogres moved to the cave entrance and another buzzer was heard and the bottom timer stopped at fifteen minutes and forty seven seconds. The room faded around them until they were in a blank white room and the doors opened up and Cooper walked in to pick them up and carry them out.

* * *

><p>"Simply incredible." Vilyak said staring at the screen as murmurs went through the gathered students. Vilyak grinned at the surrounding students. "The level six, death's grasp, endless hordes scenario is the one we send our junior agents on after they graduate from Rowan. It is a tactical nightmare; you have a terrible position, very limited resources, no initiative, little flexibility, and no information. On top of that the constant time worry and uncertainty of your next opponent as well as the knowledge that there is no end, eats at the moral of the group. It allows us to see if the rookies will break under the pressure or will stick it out, and how well the stick to the strict leadership system."<p>

The student's looked amazed. "We usually send in around five people in at once and they usually survive for seven minutes before breaking down and being completely over run, usually getting a score of about a thirty." Vilyak said grinning. "But these two first year apprentices survived for over fifteen minutes. They beat the system; the environment didn't allow for a strong position so they changed the environment, they made the initiative worthless for the enemy with their ice floor, Jasmine pulled the little energy she could from the air and stored it in she shield will they were fighting to be used as an emergency supply, and they picked a wide range of weapons to cover all the major types of enemies." Vilyak looked over at them lying on the bench. "Their speed and stamina is on a higher level and they managed to use high level Mystics under great stress and limited power. Their fighting styles are unique and support one and other. They will make fine agents."

"Stop right there, Commander!" Ms. Richter's anger shocked all of the students out of there fascination. Wisps of gathered energy were coming off of the director who looked ready to tear the man's head off. "These are young and impressionable minds. You cannot turn children into agents, it's not right."

"Children do not fight like that, they are natural born agents. And they will not always be so young, Gabrielle. The Red Branch could use skills and talent like theirs." Vilyak said coolly even as the students backed away from him out of fear of the angry Director who was making Bob look like a poodle. All the students but David filled out of the room as fast as they could.

"This is why you were voted out of being Director, you can't tell the difference between people and tools." The Director said. "They are not old enough to make a decision like that and I will not let you force it on them. The boy is only eight years old for Pete's sake."

"And our Danny is over a hundred. Antonio is almost three hundred years old. Neither of them can preformed their jobs anymore, but unlike them the boy will someday in the future be a young man." Vilyak said starting to lose his composer. "We need new blood."

"But they do not want to be agents, Commander!" Ms. Richter shouted. "Jasmine wishes to be a psychiatrist and Daniel an astronaut. You can't force them to become… soldiers!" Then Ms. Richter's voice became cold and threatening. "Now I suggest you not approach these children again."

Commander Vilyak bit his lip. "Fine then… I won't try to recruit them yet, but let them have a real challenge. Don't wait until their fourth year, give then an agent as an adviser now and let them into Devices." Vilyak said.

"Absolutely not. Look what your advising has done to…" Ms. Richter started but stopped once she noticed that the siblings were gone. "Where did they go?"

"They left around fifteen minutes ago." David said from over near one of the monitors. "Jazz said she was going to take a shower and Danny needed to go feed Kurama again." David said a little jealously before coughing into his hand. "After they got out of the mystic restricted room they quickly recovered from their exhaustion." Ms. Richter and Vilyak simply stared in shock.

"Director… perhaps we should consider having Danny and Jazz advised early." Miss. Boon said slowly. "While it is true that we should not pressure them to make any decision, I believe that this is the same situation as when we decided to change Danny's Mystics training or move them out of the first years physical training classes. They simply are too advanced for those classes. Having a professional monitoring their development is not a bad idea."

"I'm going to have to agree with Hazel." Mr. Vincenti said from over by the monitor where he was looking at the finer details of the simulation. "That particular scenario is meant to be as hard as most level seven scenarios, maybe even some level eights. We can't just have them playing tag or chasing a ball and expect they to improve. And as far as Devises goes, I don't think it would be that hard to bring them up to speed. I know they have a lot on their plates already, but they really are bright kids."

Ms. Richter bit her lip and glanced over at Cooper who had been standing there quietly the whole time. "Fine. Agent Cooper, I want you to do this after your other duties, since you have already seemed to have taken the task upon yourself. But I want you only to discuss the children with Hazel, Joseph and myself, you will not recognize any orders from Commander Vilyak involving any students, do I make myself clear?"

"Yes Director." Cooper said in military fashion.

"Good, now Commander…" The Director said looking back at the silver haired agent. "Stay away from the students or I will see to it that you are as welcome here as your predecessor. It would be ironic if the children you tried to draft replaced you and are assigned to hunt you down."

Commander Vilyak glared but turned and went to the elevator in silence. Ms. Richter sighed. "I guess it was inevitable that the two of them would get the attention of the Red Branch." Ms. Richter said sadly.

"Director… my boys were not the ones that told him." Cooper said seriously.

Ms. Richter shook her head. "I know, but it doesn't matter if you told him directly. It is hard to keep events like those that surround the Fentons under wraps. Or the kinds of raw power that Danny and David both show. It won't be long until the witches and the workshop also try to lay claim to the children's futures." She sighed heavily and the age seemed to wash over her face. "Let's just count our blessings that he hasn't heard of McDaniels' vision or else it would take more than the threat of banishment to keep him at bay."

David's head dropped a little. "All this is happening because of our powers isn't it?"

"Please don't think of it like that, David." Ms. Richter said sadly patting the boy on the back. "We can only control our own actions. None of this is any of you children's faults."

David nodded slowly. "I… I got to go feed Maya." He said dismissing himself to feed his charge. Ms. Richter sighed and slowly began the track back to her office when she stopped in front of the elevator.

"I need to work of some stress." She said and punched the eight button.

* * *

><p>This is all I wrote and all I will write. I lost my 'The Hound of Rowan' book and I don't feel like continuing the story since I wrote this three months ago. So please don't ask for another chapter.<p>

On that note I would recommend the Tapestry books. It is like Harry Potter only they ditch the school after book one and travel around the world actually doing ****, more like Percy Jackson. (**Spoiler Warning**) instead of waiting for the characters to grow up they just send them to another world where time goes faster. (**Spoiler Warning Over**) And sorry to any Harry Potter Fans, but Harry is completely unlikable and average as a character, and Voldy ain't got nothing on Asteroth. Voldy talks a big game but Asteroth (**Spoiler Warning**) takes over the world in just the first few chapters of the second book and rules it with an army of monsters with everyone bowing at his feet. And he doesn't do that thing Voldy does with NEVER APPEARING FOR MONTHS AT A TIME! He flaunts himself in front of his enemy and openly teases them.(**Spoiler Warning Over**)


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